


never wanted to dance

by witchystump



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: AU, Classpect based magical powers, Club AU, Descriptions of Zombies, M/M, Magic, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Multi, Slow burn fic, Zombies, the strilondes have powers based off their aspect
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2019-06-15 18:55:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15419424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchystump/pseuds/witchystump
Summary: Clubs are meant for fun times, loud music, and terrible clothes. Not magic, and certainly not things that will try to kill you.Karkat Vantas and his two best friends were supposed to have a fun night, for once in their pathetic lives. Sadly, even the gods of the dancefloor want to see him dead.Dave Strider's family is messed up, but they have some money and a dance club. Too bad something wants to see them destroyed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note as of June 14 2019: I started writing this before it was known that Roxy was nonbinary. I have updated both this chapter and chapter two, but on the chance there is an improper pronoun used for them, please let me know and excuse my errors.

 

 

>  "Still the night, kill the lights
> 
> Feel it under your skin
> 
> Time is right, keep it tight
> 
> 'Cause it's pulling you in." 
> 
> [_-Evacuate the Dancefloor_ , Cascada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiXhGlAiDE4)

 “Alright, I’ve had enough!”

A sharp voice cut through the apartment, startling the two boys in the room. Karkat Vantas jumped and sent his romance novel to the ground in shock. His nearby friend, Sollux Captor was surprised as well, but simply paused his video game when he recognized the source (which, as he would snidely point out, he did immediately, as he is just that much smarter--and less inclined to dramatic reactions--than Karkat).

“What are we doing with ourselves!” A girl entered from the side hall. She was eclectic to a fault: bright red and pointed sunglasses adorn her narrow face, with similar spiky hair and toothy grin. She, like the past two characters, was not human, but a race from another planet that simply liked to go by trolls, thank you very much, no need for any of the pushy blah-blah the humans seem to have for themselves. These troll creatures each were varying shades of grey with a lovely (and very dangerous) pair of horns to match. They were, indeed, on planet Earth, for no other place had quite as great comics than theirs, nor better video games.

“We’re relaxing?” Karkat says to the sassy troll, his statement coming out as a question in his confusion.

“Speak for yourself, I’m busy kicking ass,” Sollux responds with sarcasm, and unpauses the game.

“Pause that game, Mr. Appleberry Blast, we have discussions to be had!” The newcomer walked forward and poked the gamer quickly, until he finally conceded with a groan.

“What’s the big fucking deal?” Karkat inquired while kicking his romance novel under the chair he was in.

“I am so close to beating my high score, TZ, this better be good.” Here it’s noted that the character Sollux Captor has quite the severe lisp, most likely due to the abnormally large fangs he has in his mouth.Though he has gigantic fangs, they are filled down to smaller and less sharp points, probably for his own protection or perhaps for ease of speech.

The character TZ pulls up a chair from a nearby table, and sits cross-legged in it. Her hand rests on her cane and she leans forward, her glasses slipping down her small nose and sharp grin growing. Her eyes are a violently vibrant shade of red, with odd shapes across the membrane as if something has burned them. (They had been burned a long time ago, by an old but notably dead friend.)

The two boys nearby lean back slightly, each finding a nervous knot growing in their stomach.

“We,” she begins, pulling out the ‘e,’ “are going to have fun tonight.”

* * *

Karkat Vantas escaped Alternia on the day of his sixth sweep. In human years, he had just turned twelve. It took him a year and a half to travel from Alternia to a newfound planet: Earth.

On this ship, he met a fellow low blood troll. Though the ship was actually full of low bloods, all trying to escape their doomed fate with the Empress, he and this troll both had something in common. They were both illegally on the ship, hidden by their friends and some forged paperwork to escape what would be torture and death on their home planet. This friend of Karkat’s was called Sollux Captor, and he was a yellow blooded troll, which meant not only was he supremely powerful but that he should have become the powersource of one of the Empress’s many spaceships.

The two reached Earth without a scratch, thankfully, and thus entered the public school system in a place called New York, in a state also called New York, in a country called The United bitchin’ States of America, on planet Earth. There, the two met another great friend named Terezi Pyrope and, as they say, the rest is history.

Trolls, unlike humans, have no true guardian. On Alternia, they would have a creature called a Lusus who could protect them. Alas, due to Alternia’s violent nature, the Lusii were found to be too volatile and dangerous, and were not permitted entry to Earth. So, as trolls arrived at Earth, they very quickly found that they were very much alone, on a cold planet that sometimes, even very often, disliked the trolls existence.

Thank fuckin’ god though, this wasn’t the case for Karkat and Sollux. The two had each other and were lucky to land on an area where aliens were pretty well tolerated. New York was a place that had a lot of cheap apartments. It was on the less safe side of town, but fuck it, Sollux could zap people or fling them into oblivion. The two were safe.

But then they had to go and start high school. It was there they met Terezi. It was also there that the three realized that they were all great together, even though each one had some obnoxious trait or another. After a while, Terezi moved in.

The rest is definitely history.

* * *

“No,” Sollux was the first to respond. He unpaused his game and resumed the level.

“I agree,” Karkat said in a deadpan. He went to retrieve his book, but found his attempts futile as Terezi threw her cane at the two of them. Somehow, she managed to hit them both, first Sollux who managed to careen the cane into Karkat. Both yelled. 

“Terezi!” 

“What the fuck!?” 

“ENOUGH.” Without her cane, Terezi was forced to hop in the chair she sat in, letting a loud bang emit through the room like that of a judge’s gavel. “WE ARE GOING OUT TONIGHT AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO CAN STOP ME FROM MAKING YOU BOYS HAVE FUN.” 

Despite being over a foot shorter than the tallest member of the house and blind, Terezi was the only one that Sollux sincerely thought could make him regret anything he did. He and Karkat exchanged a glance, then both sighed. Their shoulders slumped as they turned to look at Terezi in union. She grinned a smile that Karkat had once called a shark smile, for how similar it was to this one animated shark that almost ate the main characters in an Earth movie the trio had seen once.

“Glad to see we’ve come to an agreement! I will retrieve you at six, which leaves you four hours to dress yourself. We will be going to a surprise location, but be aware,” Terezi paused to pull herself out of her chair and retreat to the hall before turning back to the boys. A glint of light caught her glasses and shone brightly, similar to the gleam in one’s eye that showed a devious scheme up their sleeve, “you will have to dress quite… inappropriately.” 

The boys exchanged a nervous look as Terezi retreated to her room.

* * *

“Really, Karkat, do you not own anything other than sweaters?” Terezi grumbled. It was half past six--the trio was already running late. They were stuck in Karkat’s room; Terezi attacked his closet while Karkat sat in his towel in a closeby chair, and Sollux laid uncomfortably on Karkat’s bed. 

“That wasn’t grammatically correct,” Karkat grumbled in response. He was then promptly hit with a coat hanger. 

“Did you never think to take a chance on fashion?” Terezi was deep into his closet, although it was only a foot deep and three feet deep. 

“No, because I was always cold, so I never bought something that would make me cold!” 

“I don’t see too many parkas for someone always freezing.” Sollux’s lisp ate the latter half of his sentence, but Karkat caught the meaning and scoffed. 

“Please, bitch at me some more, Mr. I Own Multiple Pairs of Leather Pants. Please enlighten me with your knowledge of fashion.” 

Another coat hanger hit Karkat, this time coming from the bed. 

Terezi growled and reemerged from the closet, her hands suspiciously empty. 

“I have had enough searching!” She declared in what appeared to be an uncharacteristic act of surrendering before leaving the room. The door slammed behind her and left the two boys shocked at the prospect, with Karkat’s mouth left agape and Sollux actually confused enough to sit up in his uncomfortable outfit. Before either could speculate, though, Terezi was back.

“Put this on!” And a bundle of fabric was flung harshly at Karkat, who fell off his seat at the force of the bundle.

“Stop throwing things at me!” 

“Stop deserving it,” Sollux and Terezi responded in union. Terezi high fived Sollux as she sat next to him. 

“You need a good outfit Karkat, and none of your current clothes will work with where we’re going.” Karkat rolled his eyes at Terezi’s words but undid the bundle of clothes. Then he froze. 

“What am I holding?” he whispered in despair. 

“If you’re that uncomfortable, I can try to find a sweater for you to wear instead of the jacket I had planned, bu--” 

“Terezi, why am I holding fishnet tights?” 

Sollux fell back onto the bed in a burst of loud laughter. Terezi waited for him to finish before responding, but let her own amusement show in a smart smile. 

“They go under the jeans, they show up through the holes. First is the fishnet tights, then the crop top--” 

“What!”

“--then the sheer shirt under that, the jeans over the sheer shirt which, yes, means you will have to tuck the shirt, and--” 

“What the fuck have you done to me?” Karkat collapsed onto the ground, the clothes resting on his stomach.

Terezi finally let out a chuckle and began moving about his room. Karkat stared up at his ceiling fan and questioned what his life had become. His thoughts were cut short by a loud cackle from Terezi. 

“Ooh, Karkat, I didn’t realize you had a thong!” 

And there was the motivation to move. Karkat shot up and shoved Terezi away from the dresser.

“Get out of my stuff!” He began digging through the drawer to check for whatever damage Terezi surely had done.

“Why do you own a thong? It’s not like you have a reason for it.” Sollux said with smirk. Terezi burst back into laughter. 

“I mainly just said that to get him up.” Terezi responded, back on the bed again. “All I could ‘see’ were some boxers and a few briefs.” 

“Why were you going through my stuff?” Karkat whipped away from the dresser, turning his glare on the two. It lost impact when yet another bundle of fabric hit his face. 

“God _dammit_ , quit throwing shit at me!” Karkat grabbed whatever hit him and glanced at it. It was a pair of briefs. 

“I was looking for something short enough to not show through the pants or tights, dumbass.” Terezi pointed roughly at the bundle in the corner where Karkat previously was. “You don’t want people to see your plaid undies, do you?” 

Karkat hated it when she did something decent midway through a terrible plan. 

“I hate it when you do shit like this,” Karkat said. The duo on the bed broke into more laughter. 

“C’mon, Sollux,” Terezi said while reaching beside her and helped pull the tightly clad boy up. “We’ll give you five minutes, Karkat. If you’re not dressed by then, I’m barging in, bulge out or otherwise.” 

She finally succeeded in pulling the other up, and the two exitted, leaving Karkat to grumble and stare at his own clothes. 

“I hate her,” he said with finality, and began to put on his outfit. 

Four minutes later, Karkat felt more exposed than when he was wearing only a towel. Looking in the mirror, the boy wanted to vomit. 

A sheer, iridescent red shirt laid loosely over a black, tightly cropped tank that showed most of his stomach. It was tucked into a pair of ripped up skinny jeans that were a deep red with black heathered in around the edges. Under those were the black fishnet tights. He barely had sleeves, no jacket, and no shoes yet, and Karkat already wanted to die rather than be seen in what he was wearing. 

“Terezi says it’s time-- woah.” Sollux swung the door open and froze, looking Karkat up and down. Karkat glared back before turning back to the mirror. 

“I’m not going out like this,” he said, his lip curling in disgust. 

“You look hot though,” Sollux said. It was Karkat’s turn to stop dead and stare at his friend. 

“What--” 

“Karkat, c’mon! It’s…” Terezi appeared behind Sollux. Her nose was up in the air, sniffing for the subtle changes that only she could detect via nose that others saw instead. A smile grew on her face: a genuine, sincere, mostly non-threatening smile. “You smell delicious, Karkat.” 

“He looks it too.” 

“That’s an odd thing to say Sollux.” Terezi entered the room and went over to Karkat’s dresser again. She searched along the top and Karkat left her to it, less concerned than before.

“He looks like a goth babe.” Sollux’s smile was the only way the Karkat could tell he was joking.

“You’re starting to sound flushed Mr. Appleberry,” Terezi said then whipped around. “Aha! Karkat, come here, now.” In her hand was a black kohl liner. 

“No, not letting the blind girl do that!” 

“Terezi, maybe I should do that instead?” Karkat and Sollux said at the same time. Terezi pouted but held the pencil out to Sollux nonetheless. Karkat was no less frightened. 

“Stand still and this won’t hurt a bit,” Sollux said before a soft zap hit Karkat. Karkat yelped, and Sollux smirked. 

“We are in serious mode, Appleberry Blast!” Terezi reprimanded from behind Sollux. Sollux rolled his eyes but obeyed. This time, when Sollux’s powers touched Karkat, they didn’t sting but instead locked him into place, a reassurance that Karkat wouldn’t move and, therefore, hurt himself by mistake.

“There,” Sollux said, stepping back to observe his work. Terezi put her hands on his shoulders and poked around him, her eyes ‘staring’ at Karkat’s face and nose twitching at a speed Karkat could only barely follow.

“Ahh, he smells lovely. Good! Now ruffle his hair while I get his boots.” And like that, Karkat was vigorously attacked by a noogie.

When Terezi returned, she had a thick pair of black socks, a slightly platformed pair of boots, and two jackets thrown over her shoulder. After putting on the shoes, Karkat was handed a black denim jacket.

“We are now an hour late, and our ride is probably furious!” Terezi let this be the prompt to shove them out of Karkat’s room and to the elevators, only going back to lock the door when the down button had been pressed. 

Outside, an old baby blue Volkswagen sat in a no parking zone. 

“Holy shit,” Sollux said, whistling as Terezi tossed him the keys. “How’d you convince EQ to let you borrow it?” 

“I blackmailed him!” Terezi said cheerfully as she climbed into shotgun. Karkat took the back and quickly buckled up. 

“Where to then?” Sollux asked as he started the car. Karkat glanced up at the rearview mirror and caught a glance of a smirking Terezi. 

“To the club on fifth.” 

Karkat’s groan quickly turned into a screech as Sollux gunned it down the road.

* * *

Three years prior, two high school students from the same high school as Karkat, Sollux, and Terezi graduated early. Apparently, the family had some money left to the kids that was accessible after graduation, so the two used their new wealth to open a club that drew in late teenagers and young adults. It didn’t sell much alcohol and mainly relied on the stupid rave culture that was currently the latest hype for kids, but it worked. Most of the humans and trolls that went to their high school went at one point or another. Somehow, Karkat had managed to weasel out of that torture. That was until Terezi took him there. 

 _CLUB TRICKSTER_ glowed in different neon colors across the street. There was quite the line out front of the joint, but Terezi walked by everyone and buddied up to the bouncer. Karkat wasn’t sure, but he assumed there was a list of people allowed in for the night, since Terezi was able to pull them in almost immediately. 

Outside, it looked like another brick bar even with the neon lights that lit up the entire block. Inside, it was a whole new world, unlike anything Karkat had seen before. 

The whole room was painted black but was splattered with various glow-in-the-dark and blacklight paints. The room glowed, giving it a mysterious and adventurous aura. (Or maybe Karkat only thought that because it was so foreign to his couch.) Along the far side was a bar of sorts: painted pitch black like the room but lined in multiple strips of different colored LED lights. Near the bar were a few tables and hightops, and a stairwell that was only accessible from behind the bar. Everything that could be wrapped in various Christmas and LED lights was done up brightly with them. But even as incredible as that was, it didn’t compare to the dance floor. 

The dance floor had to take up at least three quarters of the room. The floor itself was some sort of screen, or a number of them, and the images switched from muted colors to gears, then to nature scenes, then to what looked like the sky so everyone looked like they were floating, then space. Karkat could barely pull his eyes from the scenes. Above the beautiful screen was a disco ball that of fucking course had to be at least five times bigger than Karkat. There were no lights pointing at the ball; instead, the lights came from within, each color coming out of one of the diamonds that from the distance looked small but had to be bigger than Karkat’s hands. Sometimes the diamonds would shine different colors, and the dancers would look like they stood within a translucent rainbow.

It was the most beautiful place Karkat had ever been. 

“Holy fuck,” Sollux said, agreeing with Karkat’s unspoken sentiment. Terezi turned back to them and grinned. 

“Well, boys, it looks like I was right yet again!” she yelled over the music. Karkat suddenly understood the need for what clothes the trio was wearing: Sollux’s leather pants and shiny red and blue shirt reflected the light, and Terezi’s teal dress was made of little diamond sequins that almost blinded Karkat at her every turn. Even the shirt Karkat had hated shimmered enough to catch a few wayward glances. Their clothes were meant to reflect and draw attention. It was horrifically noticeable, but at least none of the trio would get lost. 

“I guess so,” Karkat yelled back. The music finally hit his ears--some upbeat techno remix of Mr. Brightside was blasting, competing with the shouts of the dancers on the floor. 

Terezi tugged the boys forward so they stood next to her, then shoved them towards the dance floor. 

“Go get started having fun! I’ll grab us some drinks first, plus I need to go greet someone.” Karkat could barely manage to hear what Terezi said, but before he could respond, Sollux had ahold of his arm. 

“Like the humans say, when in Rome, do as Romans do!” he said and dragged Karkat out onto the dance floor. Karkat didn’t even know what the fuck he meant, but pretty soon, he didn’t care. 

Karkat wasn’t sure how he looked when he was dancing, but he knew he couldn’t look worse than Sollux. Sollux towered over most of the humans and trolls around them and as gangly and bony as he was, he had to be some sort of stabbing hazard to the people around them. But nonetheless they danced, Sollux unconcerned about his elbows and angles and Karkat not worried about his dancing skill or how people saw him.

Being on the dance floor was different than looking at it. From the outside, it looked like a group of people dancing on space surrounded by a rainbow, but inside it looked like a kaleidoscope. Karkat and Sollux should have been dizzy or at least sickened by all the colors, but instead, the two found themselves bordering on drunk with their adrenaline and joy.

He had lost track of how many songs had passed when Sollux suddenly grabbed Karkat’s hand.

“Have you seen TZ yet?” he screamed over the music and voices. Karkat shook his head, clearing his mind and suddenly realized that their third partner was nowhere to be seen. Though, a lot was left unseen; dancers were smushed together tightly and Karkat wasn’t tall enough to see over them.

“Should we go look for her?” Karkat yelled back. He knew Terezi could take care of herself, and she had said something about greeting someone anyways. A strong part of Karkat didn’t want to leave the dance floor.

Sollux nodded and started pushing through the crowd. It took them a few minutes and an uncomfortably close brush with a troll couple that had been dancing _way_ too close together, but the duo finally made it out of the throng. Sollux had led them to the side of the club with the bar where it was far less packed, though the club was still full.

A wash of cool air hit Karkat and he felt himself gasp in relief. Despite his enjoyment, he was glad to get away from the mashed bodies and their heat. The dance floor had been hotter than hell.

“Thank fuckin’ gog we’re out of there,” he said to Sollux, his screams lessened to a shout. Sollux’s shoulders bounced and he turned back to grin at Karkat.

“What, weren’t you enjoying yourself?” Sollux called over his shoulder, leading him to one of the hightops. The two sat at the first empty table they could find, resting for a minute. Sollux was the one facing the bar and Karkat could tell he was searching around for Terezi. Karkat started looking around the dance floor for her, but even at one of the hightops, he could barely see anyone.

Except…. He squinted and looked back at the far edge of the dance floor. There was a small second floor that wrapped around the wall and looked over the dance floor. Perched on the black railing was a small human boy. Karkat couldn’t tell much about him; his hair and face glistened in the light, which made him think that the boy had light hair and some sort of glasses on. He was wearing some red, maybe on his chest, but mainly black. The boy was still as a statue, looking out to the dancers. It was probably one of the club owners, but something kept Karkat’s eyes locked on him.

“Found her!” Sollux said. His hand reached out and before Karkat could protest, Sollux shifted Karkat’s head to the opposite end of the room, where the bar was. There, sitting on a stool and chatting with the bartender, was the teal-clad third member of the group.

Sollux hopped down from the stool and motioned for Karkat to follow. He did, but not before giving the boy he had seen one last glance. To his surprise, the boy was gone without a trace.

“Are you coming?” Sollux yelled, already a few feet away. Karkat scrambled down and raced to catch up with his friend.

Terezi leaned halfway across the bar, barely seated on the stool and held in place by her legs wrapped around the metal leg of said stool. The bartender, a dark haired human male with deeply tanned skin and a bright smile, laughed at whatever it was he said.

“TZ!” Sollux called when the duo was close enough to be heard. Terezi turned around, a wide smile on her face, and motioned them to some shockingly empty stools. 

“Finally, I thought you two’d never stop dancing!” she said, then leaned back over to the bartender. “Get these boys something good, Mr. Sour Apple! Make it something red for the short one and red and blue for the bony one!” 

“Will do, Missus!” he said with a loud laugh, then turned to his work station behind the bar. Sollux leaned around Karkat and stared at Terezi. 

“Is this your friend?” he asked loudly. 

“No, this is just someone I knew,” she replied, taking a sip of a teal drink that perfectly matched her dress. “My friend left ages ago!”

“Who were they?” Karkat asked. Terezi raised an eyebrow at him. 

“What’s it to ya?” she said. Karkat felt himself start to blush when, thankfully, the bartender returned with their drinks.

“One cherry colada and a two toned raspberry daiquiri, both virgin!” he said, flourishing two large drinks. Karkat’s had a tiny umbrella straw in it, which he poked disdainfully.

“Excuse me, what the fuck did you call us?” Sollux said. A quick glance showed that Sollux looked frozen in his seat, a frown etched on his face and his eyes starting to gleam.

“Not like that!” Terezi leaned across Karkat with her body almost fully in his lap. “It’s a human drinking term, not like actual virginity.”

The bartender caught Terezi’s words and grinned sheepishly. “‘t means no alcohol, good chap!” he said to Sollux and pointed at his drink. “Wasn’t sure what sweep you were and figured I’d play it safe. This lil’ lady here told me she was underage, so I figured you both were too!”

“What?” Karkat asked, looking at Terezi. She shrugged.

“Some humans drink this thing called alcohol, which apparently is like sopor but not at the same time.” She took a long sip of her own drink before glancing back to Karkat. “Don’t ask me, I’ve never had it.”

“It’s a drink that people add to other drinks to make them all woozy in the head,” the bartender added. He leaned in close to Karkat and addressed the two boys. Upon a closer glance, Karkat noticed the bartender had a slight overbite, wide black glasses, and was wearing what might be the shortest shorts Karkat had ever seen. “Some people like it because it helps them relax, but too much of it can lead to a problem.” The man pulled back and picked up a glass and a nearby rag and began to polish the former.

“This is Jake English, the wonderful bartender here,” Terezi said to her group. “He’s here from somewhere named England.”

The man, Jake, beamed at the group.

“Where the fuck is that?” Sollux asked. Karkat could tell he wasn’t impressed and, worse, he already hated the innocent guy. Karkat sighed at the argument that was bound to happen with them.

“Try your drink, it’ll be great!” Terezi said, choosing to ignore Sollux’s animosity and pulling on Karkat’s arm to get his attention.

Karkat looked at the drink and frowned. He personally held no ill will towards Jake and assumed his drink-making skills were probably decent, but something about the bright red and orange umbrella straw made him wary. An elbow in the side from Terezi decided it for him.

“Ow, you fuck,” Karkat muttered before grabbing the drink and sipping down some.

….Okay, so what if it was the best drink he had ever had. It’s no big deal. Karkat was definitely not going to chug the drink--oh, shit, half of it was already gone.

Terezi snickered next to him. “You actually are enjoying yourself! Look at that, the hermit finally left his little shell and he’s happy! It’s the end of the world as we know it!”

“Go fuck yourself!” Karkat shoved Terezi almost off her seat, but even he knew he couldn’t be angry at this. Shit, he was even smiling. Another laugh off to Karkat’s right revealed that Sollux had heard Terezi’s comment as well.

Terezi hopped back onto the seat and grinned her signature shark smile, a happy front with a frighteningly sinister interior. Karkat’s heart swelled for a second, which was a feeling he hadn’t felt in a little while. Terezi had been right to drag him out of the apartment; Karkat realized that life had been very boring since high school ended. He grinned brightly at Terezi.

“I knew you were happy,” Terezi said, reaching over Karkat to pull Sollux closer to them. There, in a rare move, she held both of them and Karkat, feeling unusually bold, wrapped his arms around their shoulders. Even Sollux patted Karkat’s shoulder and smiled a bit.

“It really is the end of the world, isn’t it?” Sollux asked with a chuckle.

Then, the lights around the room flickered. Jake, cleaning glasses and pretending not to watch the trio, froze and glanced up.

“That’s never happened before,” he said, setting the glass down.

The trio separated and glanced around. It appeared that no one on the dance floor noticed anything, though the nearby tables seemed confused.

The lights flickered again, this time taking a few seconds before resuming. It wasn’t total darkness; the disco ball and the dance floor stayed lit brightly.

Jake frowned and reached forward to grab a phone. Hitting only one number, he held the phone and glanced around.

“What’s going on? Isn’t New York impossible to turn off?” Karkat asked the occupied bartender, who shrugged before putting the phone up to his ear.

“That’s what she said,” Sollux said quietly. Terezi cackled.

“Hey, boss? We have a problem with the lights down here,” Jake said loudly into the phone. “They keep flickering and--”

The silence that comes after loud sounds is the most shocking. When the music stopped, the whole room went silent in shock all at once. Shouting and conversations stalled in less than a second.

“Annnnd now the music’s gone. Can you check the breaker, see if we fucked something up?”

The lights flashed again, and every LED and string light went out at once.

“Yes, get on that asap!”

The disco ball started flickering.

“Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Boss, I’m--” Jake sighed and sat down the phone. At the trio’s curious gaze, he shrugged. “The phone cut out. He’s just upstairs though and this all should be sorted out in just a second.”

Terezi turned to look at Sollux and Karkat. “Do you boys smell something off?”

Sollux sniffed the air then nodded. “Smells rotted. Did you leave something out?” He turned an accusatory glare at Jake, who shook his head.

“I don’t smell anything. Besides, there isn’t anything down here that could smell rotten. It’s all artificial stuff, or too fresh to be bad.”

Karkat took a whiff of the air, though he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. He had a mutant blood type--something that didn’t bother him much on Earth anymore, since he was surrounded by people with his blood color, but did impact several of his troll senses.

He did notice something though. In a small mirror on the bar, Karkat saw something along the far end of the dance floor rush by in a flash of green. Karkat whipped around, straining to look over the now murmuring crowd for the flash he had seen. Fed up with his lack of visibility, he stood on his seat, and sighed when he realized that he could see over the crowd but that there was nothing to see.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Sollux asked him.

“Please be careful, I don’t want to have to peel your ass off the floor,” Terezi said cooly with a sip of her drink.

“I saw something move along the edge of the dance floor,” Karkat said, straining his eyes to try to see the back wall. All there was, it seemed, was a door painted the same shade as the walls with a neon yellow M painted on it. Karkat assumed it was maintenance, and discarded it’s importance in his quest. “Or I thought I saw something.”

“How did you see the back of dance floor when you were facing us?” Jake asked. His accent deepened when he spoke in a rush, causing Sollux to snicker quietly at him.

“The mirror behind the bar caught the green light,” Karkat responded and began to pull himself down. He glanced over at Jake, who was giving him a strange look.

“Whaddya mean, the mirror behind the bar? There’s no mirror back here.” Jake pointed behind the bar, and Karkat took a long look. Sure as shit, the mirror Karkat had seen was gone. He frowned.

“I swear I saw something,” he muttered, leaning across the bar to look at the back wall harder. 

“There’s something in here.” Terezi’s voice broke Karkat’s concentration and the group turned to look at her. Her nose was twitching in a familiar way, a clear signal she was smelling something, but her face was off putting. She clearly looked distressed and confused but what was worse was the stiffness to her joints.

On cue, both Sollux and Karkat began mimicking her. Their joints tightened and muscles relaxed, ears and nose and eyes straining. It was a sign of danger for trolls; when one troll went stiff, the rest followed.

Unaware to them, nearby trolls began to stiffen too.

“Wait, what do you sense?” Jake asked, the worried frown on his face growing with the second. When none of the trolls responded, he bent under the table and pulled up something. With a start, Karkat realized it was two guns.

“Which was is it?” Jake asked while cocking the guns. Karkat only had to worry for a second.

Then the dance floor’s lights went out. The trio of trolls stiffened and pulled together, sides touching. Karkat’s back was against the bar. Behind them, Jake cursed and something on the bar shattered.

His eyes took a second too long to process the dark. Karkat heard the screaming before he could see the source of it. The trolls adrenaline spiked at the sound. Sollux hissed quietly, then a soft light filled their small corner of the room.

Sollux’s psionics  emitted a red and blue light that was similar to emergency lights whenever he used them. They lit the bar and some nearby tables. As if drawn to the light, the nearest tables occupants pulled closer. Karkat was more than somewhat relieved to see that more than one of the new trolls had makeshift weapons on hand.

Sollux’s psisonics could only reach so far so seeing the dance floor was out of the question. A second scream began and Karkat, Terezi, and Sollux were still clueless as to what was happening. Another scream, and Karkat nearly pissed himself when Jake hopped on top of the counter. His guns were trained on the darkness near the dance floor.

Something shattered on the dance floor, then there was the sound of chaos. Uncountable screams. The THUMPS of people hitting the floor. A terrifying ripping sound that Karkat hoped was just clothes, ruined in the thralls. A table in the darkness collapsing. A screech of metal as it was destroyed quickly.

Terezi and Sollux were vibrating with fear, and soon Karkat knew why.

Quietly, under the chaos and in the darkness, came a deep, gurgling growl.

The trolls around the trio bristled and prepared themselves.

Something came into the light of Sollux’s psionics--a half-dead human, with numerous cuts to their face. Their clothes were covered in cherry red blood. Sweat dripped from their hair. Terezi gagged from the scent of the human’s injuries.

A troll near them took a step forward, reached down to grab them. Their arms had barely wrapped around the humans when they were tugged into the darkness. The two disappeared. For three long seconds, there was nothing on edge of the darkness.

Then there was a growl.

Then a face.

Then something with a mutated, skin-boiled-and-melting-off face, launched at them.

Karkat screamed. Terezi grabbed Karkat.

Jake’s gun cut through the silence and the creature.

Sollux’s psionics caught it before it hit the ground.

A nearby troll vomited at the sight of the creature. It was human, Karkat thought. It had that same uncooked dough color to it’s skin that some of the humans had, only it was far more transparent than usual. Blue veins stuck out all along it’s face and neck. It’s skin dripped along the body, like it was made of wax and was placed to close to the fire. It wore no clothes but had no body markings--the things humans called belly buttons and nipples were absent, as were it’s genitals. Also missing were the creature’s eyes, nose, and ears; there were slits for the two former features and gashes for the latter. It was not something normal, nothing like Karkat had ever seen or heard about. The blood that dripped from the gunshot wound was pitch black and thicker than troll or human blood. It reminded Karkat of tar, complete with the occasional small chunk of asphalt mixed into the slurry.

Something leapt into the light and Sollux dropped the creature, preparing his psionics to grab whatever was new, but froze when he realized it was an injured troll girl. Her dress had been ripped in the front and it was clear her stomach and sides were badly cut.

“They’re attacking us!” she screamed. With all of the screams from behind her and in the darkness, Karkat was surprised he could hear her at all.

Another troll shot forward and grabbed her, pulling her into the light. Jake reached down and grabbed her, and the two lifted her over the bar.

“You all get over here!” he commanded, holding the injured girl against him. She was convulsing, Karkat realized sickly, her eyes rolling back into her head and her body trembling.

Karkat and Terezi were in the air alongside a few trolls before they realized what was happening. Sollux picked them up and dropped them on the other side of the bar with his psionics. Jake grabbed Karkat and a nearby troll and wrapped their arms around the injured girl.

“Those stairs there,” he said with a pointed index finger, “will lead you upstairs. Take her up there, and tell the owners to get their asses down here with their weapons stat. Tell them to restart the generator as well! We need light!”

The trolls began to move before Karkat could process the commands. Jake leapt over the bar and began to shoot. When Karkat looked to where he aimed his gun, he stiffened. More of the creatures were coming.

A quick glance back reassured him that Terezi was behind him. Karkat, with the injured girl on his shoulder and the other troll helping pull her, began up the stairs. The walk felt long with his heart pumping a thousand times faster than usual. Another troll--he thought it may be Terezi but wasn’t sure--was pushing the girl, helping the trolls carrying her go faster.

At the top of the stairs was a black door without any neon paint on it. Someone ahead held it open for the three trolls helping the girl to struggle through. A few more trolls rushed in, then the door slammed shut.

A long hallway awaited them. There were no lights here, but the trolls could see relatively well in their darkness. Karkat glanced around, observing what was around them. There was a door directly to their right, but something told him it led to the opposite place he wanted to be right now. There were two doors closeby on the left, and several more that Karkat couldn’t see ahead. No one was moving towards them, and the injured girl still laid heavily against his arm.

“Well, get to the damn doors!” he yelled at the other trolls, who each side eyed him momentarily. “Don’t just stand there, find the fucking owners, you bulgesuckers!”

The trolls shot forward, their hivemind kicked into overdrive. Karkat watched as every troll except Terezi, the other troll holding the girl, and himself rushed forward and flung apart doors.

Something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. The third troll who pushed the girl upstairs moved to his right, too quickly for Karkat to fully process. The troll put his hand on the doorknob, and a horrible sensation filled Karkat’s stomach.

“Wait!” Karkat tried to stop them, but it was useless. The door opened and with a screech, one of the creatures flew into the room. It launched itself over the first troll and knocked the second to the ground. The hurt girl crumpled, though she was the least of Karkat’s worries now.

The creature laid atop Karkat heavily and screamed at him. Karkat shoved it and took a swipe at it’s neck when it finally moved back far enough. It screamed again and threw itself at Karkat, pinning him down.

The thing opened it’s mouth. It’s breath smelled rancid. The few teeth the thing had were razor sharp in a way different from a troll’s teeth. Karkat struggled but found himself pinned, unable to move.

It leaned back, the side of it’s mouth and jaws ripping apart as it opened it’s mouth impossibly wide, preparing for the bite; Karkat got a too close look of a thick, pointed tongue and black mouth--

Then it collapsed atop him, dead. The tar-like ooze dripped onto Karkat’s stomach before he shoved it away from him. In the creature’s back was a sword. Karkat barely had a chance to look at it before it retreated back to where it came from. Karkat stared up.

The boy from the balcony stood above him, one hand holding a long sword and the other extended to Karkat. Karkat took the strangers hand and stood.

“What the fuck is that?” the boy asked. He was close enough Karkat could get a decent look at him: he had straw colored hair that was pushed back with a pair of aviator sunglasses, a long sleeved shirt and skinny jeans (now stained with a few drops of the creatures blood), and seemed young and close to Karkat’s own age.

“It’s been attacking the people downstairs,” Terezi said before Karkat could respond. “Jake from the bar said to get the owners and tell them to get their asses down there now, and get the power back on.”

There was a moment of silence. With the door now open, Karkat could hear the occasional gunshot from what he thought was Jake. The boy looked at Terezi impassively for a moment before nodding.

“Alright,” he said, before yelling, “DIRK, ROXY, ROSE, ASSES OUT HERE NOW! WE HAVE A BIG FUCKIN’ CODE RED ON OUR HANDS.” He paused to take a deep breath, then addressed the trolls around him. “Y’all need to go to the third door on the left. Now. It’s a spare room with medical supplies; it should keep you safe. There’s a girl in there, she should be able to help with you and her.” He pointed at Karkat and the girl crumpled on the ground. “I’ll send whoever I can in with Jake. Don’t come out unless you hear it’s me or Jake, alright?”

The trolls around him nodded.

“Get in there and get to helping those two, stat and pronto.” With his words, the trolls shot forward. Terezi helped Karkat get the girl as well as help the other two fallen trolls up.

Karkat ended up being the last to enter the room. He turned back and caught the eye of the boy he had seen on the balcony and stopped.

“What’s your name?” Karkat asked.

“My name’s Da--”

“What the fuck was this about a code red?” a voice overlapped with the prior, and Karkat’s view of the boy was blocked by a man coming out of the next room. In his hands, he held a similar long sword.

“There’s somethin’ attackin’ people downstairs and the lights’re out,” the first boy responded with a sudden heavy Southern accent. The second moved forward and started out the balcony door, but froze when he saw the corpse in front of it.

“Jesus,” Karkat could barely hear him mutter before he was gone, out the door with a step so fast it didn’t seem real.

From the same door emerged two people. One held what looked like spikes at her side. The other had a big ass machine gun strapped to their back. The two didn’t say anything, just followed the lead of the man before them. The spiked girl went out the door to the balcony, while the other started to open the door to the stairs. Then, they turned, and locked eyes with Karkat.

They smiled. Their teeth were so bright they reflected light even in the near complete darkness.

“Don’t dally, honey,” they said, their eyes still locked on Karkat but their words meant for the boy left standing. Then, they opened the door, and disappeared to the other side.

The boy and Karkat stared at each other for one last second before he turned and followed the human with the gun.

“Dave Strider,” he said as he opened the door. His voice was plenty loud enough for Karkat to hear.

“Karkat Vantas,” Karkat managed to spit out before the boy shut the door behind him.

“Yeah, that’s who you are, now can you shut the damn door?” Terezi growled from behind him. Karkat jumped, but did as he was told, closing the door behind him and sealing the group in the room together.

There was a minute of darkness, where the trolls all grumbled and tried to find their boundaries, before the lights burst back on.


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

> You never know when they're satisfied
> 
> Buried down deep where the sun don't shine
> 
> The monsters are buried down deep inside
> 
> — _[Monsters](https://youtu.be/QBIYMFycWcY),_ Hurricane Bells

 

Dave Strider knew better. At least, he thought he did.

“Did you not clear the area?” Dirk, his older brother, said breathlessly in one of the few breaks he was taking from the fight.

The dance floor of his sibling’s club was coated in blood. There were a few bright shades typical of trolls and the occasional ruddy red, but for the most part, it was the blood of the reanimated—human but darker with age and more clotted. Though they were technically named the reanimated, Dave thought of them as zombies because, well, that’s what they were like. The only real difference that mattered was that these zombies didn’t want to eat people, which was secondary in his mind. Their existence was used to damage and injury, and they were currently busy doing that very thing by attacking the club. Dirk had just returned from getting some more people and trolls upstairs to safety when he began talking to Dave.

“No, I cleared it,” Dave said, a slight annoyed tone to his voice. “Did everythin’ you taught me, from the salt to the spells to the runes.”

“Then how are they able to get in?” his brother bitched.

Dave didn’t get the chance to answer. A zombie popped up behind Dirk, who attacked with his sword. Dave resumed the battle.

The two brothers were in the midst of the dance floor, the only two in the middle of the frenzy but not entirely alone in the room. That was where the zombies had all started—a huge collective of undead and mutilated fuckers that liked to stick near some bright lights and each other. The two brothers were at an advantage here—the undead were more susceptible to physical and tangible weapons as opposed to those with magical origin. Though the whole family could use magic, most of them favored weapons to magic, like Dave and Dirk’s preference with swords. That explained why Roxy, Dave’s older sibling and the club’s other co-owner, was beating down zombies with a large automatic rifle. They had long ago run out of bullets, but was just as dangerous with what was essentially a bat now. None of their magic worked very well against zombies and wasn’t worth the effort when a bullet or quick swing could accomplish what they wanted in half the time.

Except Rose, his other and final sister, who was above the brothers on the balcony. She was casting, using spells and dark magic to keep the dead from reviving. Occasionally, a long, black tendril like that of a squid would slip down around him and impale some nearby zombies. Her form of magic allowed her to create something physical, something her brothers and sister were incapable of.

The two brothers had finally cleared the dance floor and paused to take a look around. Dave took that second to pause and catch his breath. The zombies were busy congregating in a new spot.

At the bar, the loyal family friend and bartender Jake English shot and chopped at the zombies that were growing in number around him. He wasn’t as accurate as Roxy with his gun, but he was disabling them in a few hits. It was enough for another person near him, some yellow-blood troll with what looked like a metric fuckin’ ton of psisonic power, to rip whatever was left of the weakened zombies and disintegrate them into nothingness. Dave wasn't sure who the troll was, but he was a good fighter. So far, the two had killed almost as many as Dave and Dirk had.

Dirk jumped up and, in a move that should've been too high and skilled for him to complete, swung onto the balcony above the two.

“Show off!” Dave yelled up to his brother before joining Jake and the troll. There was the quiet sound of deep laughter for a second.

It took an hour, thirty five minutes, and nineteen seconds for the group to dismember every zombie enough to be safe.

“Righto, that was not how I planned tonight going!” Jake said with an exaggerated wipe of his brow.

“Yeah, ya didn’ get the chance to sneak off with Dirk tonight, huh?” Dave responded slyly. The yellow-blood troll snickered nearby, and Jake blushed.

“That’ll be enough,” Dirk said from the balcony. He swung over the railing and hopped down to the floor, landing crouched with one hand down. When he stood, the sticky black blood of the zombies clung to his hand. He flicked as much of it off as he could with a disgusted look.

“What the hell happened here tonight?” he asked. As he got closer, Dave could see the dark glare on his face that was too familiar—it was times like these that Dave actually feared for his life. Dirk was, although powerful, as harmless to Dave as a fly, but when he became angry, he looked like their father. The father was the only thing—person, demon, magic, or otherwise—that the two boys were scared of. Being his descendants, they both naturally had traits from him. Dave was determined to never tell Dirk that, though—but different at the same time. It was only when Dirk stopped a few feet in front of Dave and exhaled, his shoulders slowly falling downwards in a way that showed he wasn’t so much angry as frustrated and worried, that Dave’s fear snapped.

“It looks like something attacked your club,” the yellowblood said, with a sarcastic, know-it-all tone. Dave gave him an admirable look, which was returned with a fang-filled grin.

“No shit, Sherlock. I know that. I mean how did they get past the barriers?” Dirk turned to glance at Dave with eyes still like steel. He wasn’t getting out of this shit easily, but he knew how he had kept up the borders. He’d done them perfectly.

“I dunno, I did them correctly. They shouldn't’ve been able to get in.”

“He’s right,” Rose called from the balcony. She was still immersed in spell mode, working on keeping the boundaries up until they had time to work their protective energies. Though she faced the group, her mind wasn’t fully on them. A bright gleam to her hands and eyes was noticeable, even from such a distance.

“What do you mean, he’s right?” Dirk called up to her, yelling somewhat unnecessarily. Like the drama queen he was, he spun around to glare up at her general area with exaggerated annoyance.

“The spells weren’t down. They got in through the spells.”

“Oh shit, that can be a problem,” Roxy said from behind the bar. Dave wasn't sure how they managed to slip by him without him noticing, but he wasn't surprised. The rogue was known to disappear and reappear at will. “Anyone want something to drink while we figure this out?”

The troll made a soft chirping sound and sat at the bar. Judging from how Roxy grabbed another glass, he thought it was a sound of confirmation.

“Roxy, stay focused,” Dirk called over his shoulder before turning back to Rose. “How could they break in? I thought the boundaries were perfect.”

Rose appeared over the balcony, leaning against the railing. Her hands and eyes had dulled down to normal and she looked at the group like she could actually see them.

“Perfect is not a synonym for super-ultra-mega-powerful, dear brother,” she replied.

“So were they weakened?”

“No, they were very powerful. And Dave did them right, so stop bitching about my brother’s incompetence. He’s innocent...this time.” The light returned to hands only to pop away as quickly as it had appeared. It was just enough to illuminate her smirk. “Whoever sent these zombies were far more powerful than we’re accustomed to. I’m upgrading the boundaries now.”

“How fucking powerful would they have to be?” Dirk murmured before slowly turning back to Dave. He motioned them over to the bar.

Once seated, Roxy handed them both a bottled water. Dave was grateful, but didn’t neglect to notice how Roxy and Jake had a fancier glass of what he knew was liquor.

“So, we were attacked by someone who’s more powerful than we expected, and they sicced a bunch of reanimated but modified to not look human corpses on us. Do I have that right?” Roxy asked. When Dirk nodded, they took a sip of their drink.

“What does that mean?” Jake asked, his fingers dancing nervously along the side of the glass. “Should I call Jane, check in on Johnny and Jade? Are we under attack?”

“Attack’s over, buddy,” Dave said. “What this means is that—"

“This had to be intentional,” Dirk cut Dave off. He hadn’t yet taken a sip of his water and had a thousand yard stare focused on the bottle. “That kind of power combined with how many zombies there were, that equals someone did this on purpose. We were attacked intentionally. Someone knows—"

“You weren’t the only group attacked.” A nonchalant troll was slouched in a stool a few seats down, his feet perched in the stool next to him. He was boredly twirling his phone through his fingers. At Dirk’s glance, he sat the phone down on the counter and gave it a tap in Dirk’s direction. Four small, insect-like legs grew out of the ridged sides of the phone and Dave watched in disgust as it quickly scuttled towards Dirk.

“That’s a story from upstate New York, where a bunch of deformed humans attacked a farm,” he continued once Dirk picked it up. He had a heavy lisp whenever he used an S, Dave noticed. “And there’s one from Queens, where a church was attacked, and Central Park too. Whatever it was, it doesn’t seem personal.” The troll took a long sip of his drink, his eyes never leaving Dirk.

“I think there’s something wrong with your phone, dude,” Dave said, trying and failing to keep a grimace off his face.

“How’d you find this out?” Dirk asked, ignoring Dave as usual. As he picked up the phone, the legs rescinded back into the phone with a disgustingly wet slurp.

“I have sources, such as a news app, notifications turned on, and Google,” the troll replied. Dirk rolled his eyes then began to read.

“What’s your name?” Roxy asked him.

“Sollux Captor,” he responded.

“What technology is this? This works so smoothly,” Dirk muttered before handing him his phone back. Sollux smiled.

“It’s a mix of Alternian and American technology. I designed it a few years back.”

 _Oh no, here we go again_ , Dave thought while expecting his brother to nerd out on the troll.

“Why attack all of these places though? If this was random, and we weren’t attacked for having magic, does that mean this is a power move for someone else to intimidate another person?” Jake asked before Dirk could begin rambling.

Roxy chuckled quietly. “I think you’ve been watching too many Indiana Jones movies, Jake.”

“That very well may be what we’re dealing with,” Rose called from the balcony. Dave turned to look at her but instead caught a glance of the boundaries returning to place. A flash of gold light slipped along the walls, sliding from the balcony to the bar and everywhere in between. Within the light was the occasional symbol: a sun with waving tendrils. After a second, the light faded.

The first thing Dave noticed after the show was that Sollux was wide eyed with awe.

“Never seen somethin’ like that before?” he asked the troll. Sollux slowly shook his head.

“No, I haven’t,” he said breathlessly. “What was that?”

“The boundaries being reinforced and empowered,” Rose responded, already turning to retire. “Now, if no one minds, I had a date tonight that I would like to return to.” And, without waiting for anyone’s response (as per usual), she opened the door to the hallway to the ‘main’ floor that the family lived in, and disappeared.

Dave turned back around to the group and caught the end of Roxy shaking their head.

“She’s got us beat when it comes to drama,” they said with a heaving sigh. Dirk chuckled and shook his head.

“What you saw,” he began explaining to the still shocked Sollux, “was Rose’s magic. Her power’s are the typical shit you read about—magic like Harry Potter or the wizards of old or whatever. She put up an invisible shield that won’t allow anything that intends harm in, human or otherwise. The sparkles is just her being extra as she always fuckin’ is.”

“The sparkles adds a personal flare, Dirk,” Roxy and Dave said, mimicking Rose at the same time. Sollux still looked shocked.

“I know it’s pretty at first, but it’s not that great,” Dirk continued as he stood from his stool. He grabbed Sollux’s phone off the counter and walked the few feet to Sollux and pressed the phone into his hands. When Sollux didn’t respond, Dirk gently shook his shoulder. “Seriously, it ain’t that much—”

Sollux’s body lolled back and forth twice before blood started pouring.

“Oh, shit,” Roxy said.

The family rushed into action: Roxy grabbed towels from behind the counter, Dirk reached forward to tilt Sollux’s head back, Dave supported his back, and Jake spun away from the chaos to the back of the bar after having grabbed his and Roxy’s drinks. (Dave swore he saw the man take a sip of his liquor as he quite literally twirled away from Roxy.) Once Roxy had the towels, they hopped over the counter and pressed them against Sollux’s nose.

Sollux’s red and blue eyes were rolled back so Dave could clearly see his veins, the yellow blood turned orange and green from the colored sclera of his eyes. He shook once then froze, and Dirk pressed a finger against the crook of his neck.

“His heart rate is normal….I think,” Dirk said. Dave shifted Sollux so he slumped against the back of his seat and turned to Roxy.

“Check for any outside spells. Somethin’ could’a snuck in before Rose sealed her up,” he said. Nodding, Roxy did as they were told and began muttering under their breath. They pulled one hand down and for a second, it disappeared from their body.

“‘s not somethin’ outside,” Sollux slurred, his voice snapping Dave back to him. Roxy’s hand reappeared as they caught Dirk’s eyes and nodded.

“He’s right, it’s nothing outside,” Roxy said and began gently raking their hands through his hair. His head shook lightly at the pressure but he didn’t dissuade them. “You need to relax.”

“O’rexertion,” he muttered. His eyes had rolled forward and focused on Dave. “Need honey.”

“What?” Dave asked with a disgusted look on his face. Roxy tried to cover a laugh as a cough at Sollux’s words.

“We need to get him upstairs,” Dirk ignored Dave and spoke over him. “Jake, did you say he had friends with him?”

“Yes, two lovely chaps, one was a little blind doll with the snarkiest tongue and the other—”

“Good, we can get them after we get him to Kanaya. Roxy, you take his back; Dave, grab his other side. Jake, start opening doors for us and find whatever room Kanaya’s in.”

Jake rushed off while the trio swapped how they held the troll. Roxy’s hands had disappeared midair and his body levitated momentarily, just long enough for Dave and Dirk to throw his arms over their shoulders. Then Sollux floated down a few inches so his feet didn’t drag the ground. They began across the floor then upstairs.

Kanaya and Rose were in the living room and weren’t alone. Dave and Dirk struggled to switch their hold on Sollux to get all three of them in the small doorway. Once safely inside, he saw who he assumed Jake had been talking about, a bone-thin troll girl with eyes so wide and bright red he could see them across the room. Dave realized what Jake meant when he called the girl a doll. The blind troll was downright cute, but in a way that worried Dave that he might lose a finger on how sharp her bones and angles were. Everything about her was sharp—her dress, her body, her bones, her face even lined with long and hollow cheekbones.

And sitting next to her was the beautiful fighter from before, his head turned towards Rose and only his side profile viewable. _Karkat Vantas,_ his voice echoed in Dave’s head as the two brothers finally got in through the door.

The sharp troll froze midsentence, her mouth open. Her nose was twitching in an odd way, like a cat’s would, and her eyes narrowed.

“What the fuck happened?” The sharp troll ricocheted up and toward the Striders. Karkat’s head whipped around and he yelped at the sight, then jumped up to follow his friend. They ripped Sollux from the two humans and pressed him against the second closest couch. (The first was occupied by a troll covered in maroon blood, ripped clothes, and lots of gauze.)

“He said he was overexerted and needed—” Dirk began.

“Honey. Karkat, did you bring any of the honey?”

“Terezi, what the fuck, why would I have brought the fucking honey? You’re the one with the purse!” Karkat was…. Loud. _Jeez_. Dave’s ears were ringing and he could tell the rest of his family was wincing, but the trolls seemed used by it.

Kanaya stood from her chair and began to search in the nearby cupboards.

“I presume you are not looking for human honey, correct?” Kanaya asked, and Karkat nodded quickly.

“He needs mind honey,” Karkat barked at Kanaya. She moved cupboards and pulled something out.

“He needs what now?” Roxy asked.

“Mind honey is a type of honey from Alternia. It’s called that because of it’s relationship with yellow-blood trolls. Bees, and some other insects but in this case solely bees, run the computers of yellow-bloods and produce a type of honey that is a mixture of Alternian caffeine, honey, and a calming drug similar to melatonin but less likely to make the troll sleep. It helps access parts of their mind with better ease. Because of their psionic ability, they can overwhelm some neuronic pathways and clot their mind with too much use. The mind honey helps,” Rose responded, listing the information in a matter of fact way. Roxy and Dave both gave her a wild, confused look.

“What the fuck?” Dave said. Roxy nodded their agreement.

“I am not sure if it is the same type of bee that he is used to, but I do have some mind honey,” Kanaya said to the two conscious trolls. She held a small jar of a crystalline gold substance.

“What if we ate it?” Jake asked from behind the trio.

“Your brain will fry up and you’ll die painfully. Or feel extreme pain for an extremely long time. It depends on how much you take,” the blind troll responded with facetious humor as Kanaya gave her the honey. She popped open the lid and grabbed a handful. As if by routine, Karkat grabbed Sollux’s head— _with a bit more force than necessary_ , Dave thought with another wince—and pulled him back, opening his jaw wide. The girl troll began dripping the mind honey into Sollux’s mouth.

“Why not just pour it in?” Roxy asked. They had a thoughtful gleam in their eye, something that Dave had learned was dangerous from her many, many failed experiments. (Downstairs was their infamous lab, located directly below the club. Legally it didn’t exist—it was added without city permission and was off all blueprints of the place. Though it was a hefty fine and possible jail time if the legal system ever found out about it, the family had more than a few protections in place to keep others out… and Roxy’s experiments in.)

“It’ll fry his brain if he gets too much,” Karkat muttered, annoyed.

The room went quiet after that, and an awkward minute passed without much movement.

“So then,” Roxy broke the silence after it became unbearable. “Rosie, should we do something about the other people? Maybe wipe their memory of what went down and send them on their merry way?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rose said.

“Why not? We can’t exactly have a bunch of normies wandering around and bitching about zombies—”

“Zombies?” Terezi asked, her head snapping up at the word and ‘looked’ at Roxy. Some of the honey trailed away from Sollux’s mouth and began to drip on his chin before Karkat bumped Terezi’s hand back into place. “Do you mean those dead things from movies that come back to life and eat people?”

“Well, basically they’re zombies except—” Roxy tried to say.

“So people got eaten tonight? How many people died?” Terezi was so distracted that Karkat had to hold her hand in the right spot to drip the honey into Sollux’s mouth.

“We don’t think there’ll be many casualties,” Dirk said as he stood up from his chair. Dave could tell he was going into mediation mode, trying to stop any argument or panic that was growing in Terezi. “Most of the club goers left when things started, and there weren’t any deaths inside the club, but from what we could tell, some of them lost a lot of blood. There were something like four other attacks across New York. Between the hysteria and the mass amounts of injuries, it’s unrealistic to imagine someone won’t die. But from our end, it shouldn’t be many people, if any at all.”

Terezi stared at Dirk, then nodded and turned back to Sollux.

“But we still have a ton of normies hanging out in various parts of our place, all of who dunno anything about magic and may or may not be surrounded by magical paraphernalia,” Roxy added.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Do the ‘normies’ know we’re magical, Roxy? Did we do magic around them? Can it be explained by the fact that undead creatures were attacking people?”

“Wait, won’t the whole ‘undead’ thing freak them out?” Dave asked. “I mean, they may not know we used magic or shit, but won’t they, like, jump to the conclusions those things were zombies and decide to go balls deep into insanity and zombie apocalypse training?”

Rose shrugged. “Let them think what they want, I’m sure some of them have ideas. But whoever talks to them can also try to say it’s something to do with gangs or something.”

“Ah, the traditional cop-out, it’s gangs and drugs, just like the good ol’ government warned us about,” Dirk said sarcastically from his chair. “We’d do better saying we don’t know what the fuck it was but it’s cleared out now. Cops are out and about now anyways, they’re all out patrolling the city. They’ll be safe and have some shit to say tomorrow.”

“And you know this how?” Rose said, one eyebrow perched perfectly. Dirk tapped his own phone pointedly, and Rose’s eyebrow fell.

“So should I tell them they’re safe and to head home, and wait for the right men to tell them what went down?” Jake asked. Dirk looked to Rose and Roxy before confirming.

“It's the best we got,” he said. Jake gave a finger salute before turning and leaving the room.

Meanwhile, Terezi lowered her hand away from Sollux. Most of the honey had dripped into Sollux’s mouth and he was slowly and sluggishly starting to wake up.

“What did you all mean, don’t tell them about magic?” Karkat asked, puzzled. “If you think a troll did this, just tell them. Unless the humans are dumber than a sack of potatoes, they’ll know it was psionics of some sort.”

“Shit,” Roxy muttered. “Jake didn’t tell us they didn’t know.”

Dave had thought the trolls couldn’t hear them, but Terezi turned her head to Roxy’s direction. “What don’t we know?” she asked, the last little bit of honey sliding down her hand and getting dangerously close to dripping onto the carpet.

“Allow me,” Kanaya said. She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and wrapped Terezi's hand in it, wiping away the honey. Once done, she turned to Sollux and pressed two fingers against his neck.

“He’ll need to stay here tonight,” she continued, pausing for a moment to wordlessly count his heartbeats. After a moment she stopped and turned to look at Dirk. “He’s doing much better but will need rest.”

Karkat released the vice-like grip on Sollux’s jaw and stood up straight. Terezi, now mostly free of the dripping honey, dropped her hand to her side.

“What do you mean?” Karkat asked, a tembre to his voice that made the hair on Dave’s arms stand up. “First off, if he can’t leave, we can’t. He’s our driver and most taxi cabs here are xenophobic as fuck so we’re stuck. Secondly, we aren’t fucking staying at this place until you tell us what’s going on.” He let go of Sollux’s head completely and his head slumped back against the pillows. Kanaya made a soft, almost panicked chirp, her eyes wide and stuck on Karkat like a deer in headlights.

“It’s complicated,” Rose said quickly. A glance at her showed she was just as freaked out as Kanaya, but her eyes were stuck on her girlfriend instead of the other trolls.

“Then un-fucking-complicate it,” Karkat growled back, quite literally. Dave knew that the trolls had the ability to make more sounds than humans, but the sound Karkat was making was a mix of sounds—like a cicada’s incessant hum but with the pitch of a cat's growl. Beside him, Terezi had gone stiff and almost seemed frozen, though she wasn't making any sounds. Dave’s hand twitched towards the sword he wore on his hip.

Kanaya made another quick, high pitched chirping sound before anyone spoke.

“Look, babes, the T-L-D-R of it is that psionic trolls aren't the only ones that can do magically stuff,” Roxy said. Unlike the rest of the room, she seemed relatively calm and not bothered by the two trolls gearing up to attack. “There's a longer story there, and not to keep any info from anyone, but your friend looks a little comatose from my perspective, and there’s another girl literally laying in her own blood next to him. I’m totes up for some deep convos about life and shit, but we do have things we need to do beforehand.”

Karkat glanced back down at his friend and seemed to deflate. Terezi remained still, but a slight tension seemed to leave her shoulders. The two trolls had relaxed, though not completely. Kanaya sighed quietly from beside them.

“Technically she’s right,” Terezi said. “Though I demand to be told everything as soon as Sollux is laid down.”

Karkat sighed, then collapsed into a La-Z-Boy that was thankfully next to the couch.

“Fine!” he said and threw his hands in air with gusto. “Go ahead! But I’m not carrying the fucker!” He dropped his hands hard onto arm rests.

“That’s more than alright. I have a guest room Sollux and that girl—” Dirk motioned to the other troll in the room, laying injured and unconscious but healed to the best ability of Kanaya on a nearby couch— “can stay in. You—” he motioned to the blind troll, then paused. “What’d you say your name was again?”

“Terezi Pyrope.” Dave would be lying if he said the name didn’t fit her. Her words were full of pride and she even straightened up when she announced herself. He decided he liked her a lot.

“Alright. You can stay with them, or on a couch here. As for you…?”

“Karkat.” The little troll sounded _pissed_. Where Terezi had sounded proud to introduce herself, Karkat seemed insulted that no one knew who he was.

“Karkat, you can stay with them too or in here—”

“I have an extra bed too.” The words had left Dave’s mouth before he realized he thought it. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, and he was suddenly grateful for the poor lighting in the living room. His cheeks felt fiery, though he doubted they looked as bad as they felt. Karkat looked at him for the first time since his return, looked at him fully and seemed to appraise him. When he locked eyes again with Dave, Dave immediately wanted to look down, away, focus on the fact that his shoes were starting to rip apart at the toe with wear and drag it along the ground until it ripped more. He didn’t look away though.

After an agonizing second, Karkat nodded.

“I mean, I figured they’d wanna nice bed, and I've got that extra that I can always drag out here,” Dave tried to cover up his blunder, but Karkat loudly scoffed.

“I can deal with an asshole human for one night,” he said with a shrug. “I’d rather have a bed than a couch. And you should know I’m taking whatever poor excuse for a bed that you’ve got.”

Dave could’ve sworn he saw a peek of a smile on Karkat’s face at his words.

“Alright, then,” Dirk said, taking back the reign of the conversation. “Roxy, Kanaya, and I will help get Sollux and that girl to the infirmary when Jake gets back. Rose, I’m sure you can find it in you to not piss someone off for five seconds and see where Terezi wants to sleep. Dave and Karkat can…” Dirk paused, then turned to Dave. There was a gleam in his eye that Dave really didn’t want to think about, and Dirk’s tiny smirk made Dave’s nerves worse, “go figure out the sleeping arrangements and get acquainted.”

Dave’s blush was back in it’s full honor and glory.

“I just sat down though,” Karkat moaned, though to his credit he did immediately stand. His approach to Dave made clear how tired the troll was—shoulders curled in and down, his face at an angle so all the shadows and his dark circles were more prominent than before.

“You’re probably exhausted, huh?” he said to the troll, now following him out of the room. “I’ll show you where the extra bed is.”

* * *

Karkat didn’t seem shocked to learn that the rich club owners had a whole third floor to their house. Dave led him up a staircase that was half hidden behind a door—seriously, the family had a labyrinth behind all the doors they had— and then down a shorter hallway. Dave’s room was at the end of the hall.

Dave’s room had always been unique, both to his character and in how it was built. Two walls on the southern and western sides were red brick and unpainted, but were decorated in string lights and posters and photos. The other two walls were plaster and painted a matching red. There were two doors in the room asides from the entrance, one on the plaster wall to the east and another only a bit further down from the entry door. What little furniture Dave had was dark wood.

“Mi casa es tu casa, mi amigo,” Dave said, closing the door behind Karkat after he entered. When Karkat gave him a sharp look, Dave shrugged. “If I leave it open, Rose’s cat comes in and uses it as a giant litterbox.”

“Whatever you say,” he said, very clearly unconvinced. Karkat began walking around in the room and investigating. True to his word, Dave did have a second sleeping platform, but well… Karkat wouldn’t call it a bed.

“Is this a fucking futon?” Karkat asked, kicking the aforementioned furniture. Behind his back, Dave flinched at the treatment and hoped the troll did no damage.

“Yeah, gotta problem with the glorious bed-couch?”

Karkat groaned and turned to look at a smirking Dave.

“I called dibs on the bed.”

“Can you do that?”

“Clearly, I already did.”

“It’s my bed.”

“I don’t care, you didn’t call dibs on it.”

Dave paused for a second, glancing between Karkat, the futon, and the bed.

“Fine. But I get first shower.”

“You have yourself a deal, Strider.” Karkat wasn’t sure where the nickname had come from, but it was clearly a good one. Dave smiled widely—not the dumbass smirk he had mere seconds ago, but a toothy, too big smile.

“Whatever you say, Karkitty,” Dave said quickly. Karkat’s brows furrowed as he realized what Dave said, but Dave moved quickly. Karkat froze, his brows furrowed, mouth slightly opened, midway through an exhale. Across the room, the clock on the wall stilled as well.

There was the familiar pull in his head as Dave took a second to pause and smile. He had paused time itself and, with it under his command, he crossed the room and began searching through his dresser. Once he found a pair of basketball shorts and a shirt that looked like they could fit Karkat, he turned back to the troll. Karkat’s back was to him.

Then, with a welcome tug now in his stomach, time resumed.

“Don’t—” Karkat began, then stopped. His head whipped around for a second and Dave suddenly wished he hadn’t resumed time behind him.

“Over here, buckaroo,” Dave said.

Karkat whipped around so fast that he lost his balance and had to throw one foot back to catch himself. His body contorted into an odd position and with a confused, open-mouthed look on his face, Karkat almost made Dave burst into laughter.

“Here’s something that should fit you,” he said and tossed the clothes to the troll. They bounced off Karkat’s chest as the troll made no move to catch them.

“Ooh, yikes, bad catch, man. Did you even try?” Dave said. There was a smile growing on his face.

“How the fuck did you get over there that fast?”

Dave smiled widely. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“No, seriously. What the fuck? How the fuck—you were there, I fucking saw you and then I didn’t fucking see you move—” Karkat’s voice was verging on hysteria. His hands were ripping through his coarse hair, exposing two small and almost delicate horns under the mop of ebony. In his eyes was pure panic, and Dave realized his harmless prank was starting to go far further than he wanted it to.

“Okay, before you go having a panic attack,” Dave said, pushing himself off the dresser and moving over to the troll. Once Dave was close enough to put his arm around Karkat, he did so gently to not startle him, and led him over to the bed. Karkat sat down roughly, barely controlling his body to stop the fall.

“Breathe for a few seconds, then I’ll explain,” Dave said. He began to rub soft circles on Karkat’s back to encourage him to breathe deeper breaths, and watched Karkat’s face carefully. The look of panic was fading from his eyes, though the confused brow furrow and angry frown lines remained. When Karkat’s breathing became regular, Dave continued.

“Y’know how my family said we defeated those things with magic, and that we couldn’t let people know? Well, this is one of the reasons why. People tend to panic when they find out people can do things like what I just did. Which, and I know you’re gonna ask because you’ve been askin’ and I can predict shit like that, not because of any powers though Rose kinda can, though I guess her powers are more based in death than mine are—”

Karkat glanced up at Dave with wide eyes. In the corners, tiny red tears were forming, tinging his bright yellow eyes to a muted, almost pumpkin orange, though tiny flecks of a deeper red shown through. Dave stopped taking, closed his eyes, and turned his head away from the troll.

“That was a lot. I’m, um, not the best at this, but I’ll try’n’ make this simple enough for ya.

“Alright so, the most basic part is that my family and I can use magic. Now, we got different types of magic and that’s pretty important—no magic works alike. It’s always somethin’ different and is influenced directly on who someone is. Their personality, interests, way of seein’ the world can change it. Magic, though changable, can’t be completely changed.”

Dave opened his eyes again and glanced back down at Karkat, who was staring back up at him with an attentive look on his face. His brows had lessened their furrow, to Dave’s relief.

“What you saw me do was magic. I can control time—I can pause it, basically. I dunno what else time can really be used to do other ‘n’ that, honestly. What you saw was me pause time and unpause it. I walked across the room and got your stuff while I had time paused.”

“Quit saying ‘pause time,’” Karkat finally spoke. His voice had some of what Dave figured was his usual snark, but he was quieter than usual. Dave nodded.

“There’s different types of magic, right. Dirk and Rose and Roxy and I, we all have different types. If it’s not gonna blow your mind or anything, I can tell you about them?”

Dave glanced down at Karkat. Karkat was looking down towards the floor and Dave, with a sharp streak of sudden bashfulness, realized he was still rubbing circles on Karkat’s back. He quickly pulled away.

“I don’t think you’ll fry my brain if you told me more,” Karkat said with a bit of hesitance.

“Okay. So, Rose was who I started ramblin’ with, so I can start with her. Rose’s gift is called Light. It ain’t like, lightbulbs and electricity—actually, only trolls can use electricity, fun fact for ya—it’s about what’s,” Dave put his hands and made airquotes around his next word, “‘seeable.’ Rose has this thing for knowledge so like, she’s really good with knowin’ things. Light embodies that. A lotta people say the whole Light aspect presents itself like a scholar would. Specifically, Rose can occasionally see the future, though it’s real specific to what she’s thinkin’ about and how it’ll line up with her and her studies. Light also has a good gift of memory, so she remembers like a fuckload of spells and information for us.

“Roxy’s gift is… it’s complicated but kinda easier to explain than Dirk’s. They work under a power known as Void. It’s what it sounds like—nothingness and a vast, endless space of it. They can somehow transfer herself there. Uh, for example, earlier tonight, they were able to put their hands into the Void that they work with, and push them through that space to get under Sollux so they could help hold him. I don’t fully get it, but they do, and they've tried explainin’ it to me so I’ll parrot what they always say. It’s like Void is an endless locker that exists everywhere but nowhere at once, and they can tap into that kinda-existence-kinda-nonexistence shit. They can also use it to see things and hear ‘em without fully being around someone—they're near them, but in the Void. I think of it like another plane of existence though they say it ain’t because it’s easier to understand.”

Dave glanced back over Karkat, who was still as unfreaked out and attentive as before. He sighed before continuing.

“Dirk’s the final one. He’s gotta gift called Heart, which I think is dumb as balls because it’s not about hearts at all, it’s all about soul and shit. Basically, he can do emotional shit and feel shit that others can’t. He understands people and is able to see what they can or can’t do or what they do or don’t wanna do, to a degree. I used to joke that he was like one of those profilers from Criminal Minds but, uh, those apparently don’t exist and have a lot more to do with psychology than Heart does. But he’s able to see who people are and make himself work with them better.”

“Manipulation,” Karkat interjected.

“Huh now?”

“He sees how people works and changes himself to work better with them? That’s manipulation,” Karkat explained.

“No, no, it ain’t like that. I mean, sure, Dirk can be a manipulative person some o’ the time, but it’s not as mean-spirited as manipulation is. It’s like, okay, downstairs when Dirk was able to tell us all what to do, it was because he knew who did what best. It wasn’t to be an ass, but because he was able to tell that Kanaya was good at not breakin’ shit inside the body, Roxy was good at moving things even when inconvenient, Jake was strong and willing to help, Rose was…. I honestly ain’t able to say somethin’ nice about her but she’s Rose and she’s able to turn off the ass for a bit and could see that, even though Terezi could’a gotten along with Kanaya, another troll, better, there was somethin’ about her and Rose that’ll click and make shit be easier.”

“Can he see the future then? If he can predict personalities, can he see how they’re going to react to others?”

Dave shook his head. “Nah, Rose is the only one who could see the future and that’s iffy on a good day. He just sees patterns and shit, but it’s specifically in people and traits of people and other people-related stuff.”

Dave trailed off, letting Karkat continue to stare at his feet (which didn’t reach the floor, adorably enough—they were dangling and waving in the air as Karkat thought). Finally he glanced up.

“Why do you guys, like your family specifically, have powers?”

Dave had silently hoped he wouldn’t ask that.

“I, uh, don’t know the full reason.” When Karkat scoffed, Dave raised his hands to surrender. “Hey, now, I ain’t Rose, I don’t know it all. But uh, our family did have powers too. And technically everyone can use magic, though many don’t bother to and there’s a lot of false information out there about how to tap into the inherent magic shit.”

“Inherent magic shit?” Karkat gave him an annoyed yet blank glare.

“Everyone’s able to do basic magic, except it’s really complicated to figure out how and requires a relatively long and arduous process to learn it and not die by using it. It’s basic stuff, like protection spells or, uh, spells in general, and potions and shit like that. But like I said, a lotta people can’t go through with it because of how annoyingly long it takes to learn and process in the body and get to see any results, as well as the amount of false information too.”

Karkat went silent for only a second.

“What the actual fuck!” he suddenly yelled, loud enough to make Dave’s ears ring and cause him to subconsciously jump back. Karkat, meanwhile, threw himself dramatically back onto the bed. “What have I gotten myself into!?” Karkat said, his voice still louder than necessary but blessedly still an indoor voice. “I fucking let my one idiotic friend drag me out to the last place I want to be and I still managed to get caught up in some bullshit? God fucking d— y’know what, God, just fucking kill me now if it’s so fucking enjoyable! What the fuck! What the actual, bulge-licking, -sucking, -fuckingly fuck is going on?”

Dave waited for Karkat to pause, breathing heavily, before he spoke.

“First off, can we try to talk at a normal level? I’m getting tired of not hearing.” Karkat tried to say something but Dave cut him off before the troll could get going on another rant. “Second, I don’t know what it is that hates you or anythin’, but chill about it. I can’t help it and neither can you.”

“Says the boy who can control time, we can’t change the past,” Karkat said with a roll of his eyes. Despite his apparent aggravation, he sat up, only sighing slightly when he did so.

“I can pause time, not much else,” Dave said as gently as he could without the troll catching on to his attempts to calm the other.

“Yeah, you didn’t say that thirty times before,” Karkat replied. “I mean, you’re right, but I’m not fucking happy about it.”

“I don’ see why not. Shit, man, magic’s real. Now ya know anything’s possible.”

The conversation died, and Dave turned his focus to watching Karkat’s feet dangle above the floor. Karkat seemed lost in thought, and Dave wasn’t sure what to make of his silence. Karkat seemed the type to bitch about any, and every, thing that came into his path. His sudden quiet demeanor was throwing Dave for some loops. When he realized Karkat wasn’t going to talk, Dave stood and retrieved the clothes laying on the floor.

“There’s, uh, extra deodorant, towels, and some of those li’l motel-sized shampoos and body washes in the closet down the hall,” Dave said, setting the clothes down next to the troll. He hovered for a moment. “You look like you could use a moment. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything. Help yourself to whatever ya want.”

Dave backed up then, when Karkat didn’t look up, he turned and left completely, making sure to shut the door tight on his way out.

He wound up going to the living room again, after making a small stop in the kitchen to grab a few muffins. Sitting in one of the larger chairs in the room was Roxy, focused entirely on their phone.

“Hey,” Dave said quietly, sitting down on the loveseat across from her. They glanced up for a split second before returning.

“How was making Mr. Right at home?” 

Dave rolled his eyes and scoffed. “I don't like him.”

Roxy smiled widely and Dave could see the bright shine in their eyes even when they weren't looking at him directly.

“Sure you don't, honey,” they said. Dave threw one of the muffins he had at them. It bounced off their arm and fell beside them. They picked it up with their free hand.

“I told him about our powers,” Dave said as Roxy began to rip the wrapper around the muffin away.

Roxy's head shot up.

“Was that a good idea?” they asked, skeptical. Dave shrugged.

“I mean, I kinda had to. He almost passed out when I tried to play a prank on him, so it was either tell him or deal with his scary friends.”

Roxy gave Dave an annoyed look. “You used your Time powers to play a prank?”

Dave fiddled with one of the muffins to avoid looking up at Roxy. They groaned.

“You should've known this by now, but you're shit at pranks. I thought John told you that?”

This time Dave couldn't escape Roxy's piercing stare. He half-heartedly shrugged.

“Besides, it’s totes not cool to use your powers around normies. You don't know what they'll think or do.” Roxy took a big bite out of the muffin.

“Quit calling them normies, they’ve been through a lot tonight. I'm pretty sure normies don't fight off zombies and live.”

Roxy paused midbite. “Wait, he fought one of those things?”

“Yeah, I think he’s the one that killed the one in the hallway.” Dave squeezed the wrapper in his hand. “But all I did was freeze time, and it went alright. I ended up havin’ to tell him about everyone’s powers.”

“And?”

“Well, first he freaked it—”

Roxy snorted at his words. “Dave, I will hurt you. Be serious.”

“He did though! Almost had a fuckin’ panic attack, really scared me for a minute.”

“Pardon me, but may I ask who almost had a panic attack?” A third person entered the room: Kanaya, wrapped in her silk nightgown and robe. Dave patted the seat next to him. Kanaya took that a signal to continue. “And further, are they alright?”

“Dave told Karkat about magic and he went banana-balls for a bit, but got better,” Roxy said as Kanaya took a seat next to Dave.

“That sounds not very good, but I honestly do not know what going banana-balls means.”

“It means he freaked out and almost had a panic attack, but didn't and probably believed me.”

“Dave also used his Time powers to play a prank on Karkat,” Roxy stage-whispered to Kanaya, their hand cupping the side of their mouth.

Kanaya looked at Dave, shocked, before turning a bewildered glance to Roxy. “Is he not awful at pranks?”

Roxy burst into laughter while Dave rolled his eyes.

“That's not the point, and we ain't doin’ this again, Roxy!”

“You said that you told him about your powers, correct?” Kanaya asked. Dave nodded and a familiar worried line appeared between her brows.

“He took it relatively well. He, uh, messed up understandin’ Dirk's powers a bit, but otherwise I think he got the jist of it.”

“How did he misunderstand Dirk?” Roxy asked once their burst of laughter finally subsided.

“He thought his powers were like manipulation instead of whatever the fuck they are.”

Roxy leaned back into their seat, a thoughtful look in their eyes. They reached out with their right hand and pulled a martini with bright pink liquid out of midair with a quiet _pop_ without glancing over. After taking a sip, they nodded.

“It kinda makes sense honestly,” they said. “His gift is like manipulation, though I think a huge part of the Heart aspect is understanding others and knowing when is too much, and avoiding that.”

“Well, maybe you can explain that to him. I know I did a piss poor job of it.”

“Until he experiences everyone's powers, he will not understand any of this,” Kanaya added. “I remember having to learn about this phenomena. It was and is not easy. There are many confusing parts to everyone's ability that makes understanding the overall whole of an aspect difficult. If he chooses to stick around us for any amount of time, he will struggle quite a bit.”

“That's reassuring.” The three turned towards the new voice.

Karkat stood in the doorway. The troll was still wet, his hair dripping onto the shoulders of his shirt. Though it was dark, Dave could see the nubs of his horns from across the room.

“It should not be too complicated,” Kanaya continued as the troll entered the room. “I found that it was easier to learn in small steps.”

“That sounds fucking great but be honest, how long have you spent time with them?” Karkat asked. He sulked across the room and sat in one of the chairs near Roxy. Dave thought he saw his eyes flicker to the small pile of muffins beside him but wasn't sure, and didn't want to risk pissing him off again.

“I have only been around Rose for five months. I met the family only two months ago—”

“It's closer to three, remember? You met Dave and I first because we hid in Rose's room,” Roxy interrupted.

Kanaya's eye twitched once, quickly. Dave heard her inhale deeply before continuing. “I meant officially, Roxy. I know I met the both of you earlier.”

Kanaya looked back at Karkat and gave him a small smile. “I only started to learn about all of this around three, maybe four months ago. It does get easier.”

“So does the knowledge of our own inevitable death and how fucking pointless life is,” Karkat countered. Kanaya's smile fell to a frown.

“Someone's a stubborn killjoy,” Roxy said with a sigh. They leaned back in their chair and readjusted, swinging their legs over the edge of the armrests closest to Karkat. Their phone rested on the padded armrest behind them. “I would've thought you were more curious about everything than being a big ol’ ass about it.”

“Don't get me wrong, I'm interested. But I'm not falling for the whole ‘this is so easy and simple’ game.”

Roxy took a long drink of their martini, almost finishing it. “Well then, if you're interested, ask something. You may find it's easier than ya think.”

Karkat went quiet for a second. He glanced around once, quickly, and almost caught Dave's eye before looking away.

“Can I have a muffin?” he asked first, quietly. Dave tossed him one, and Roxy pulled a bottle of water out of air again. Karkat's eyes went wide.

“Before you ask,” Roxy said, “it's from the fridge. Dave told me that he told you about Void, but I get the feeling he didn't do a good job at it.

“So, lemme start this shebang. Void is a magical aspect all about space, but in a different plane. There's another aspect called Space, and it deals with real things. Space can change sizes of things, so say that chair,” Roxy pointed to Karkat's chair, “could grow bigger or smaller. We have a friend who deals with Space and she's super smart with biology and atoms and also plants but that's sort of unrelated. She can move things like I do, but in a different way. She moves their atoms, pulls them apart and sends them to a different place and pulls the atoms back together. I, on the other hand, just reach for them.” Roxy took another small sip of their drink. “What do you know about dimensions and planes?”

“You're not talking about measuring shit and airplanes, right?” Karkat looked a little hopeless, and Dave was tempted to reach to him.

“Nah, not one bit. Don't worry though, it's not a hard thing to get. Basically, I can reach past this plane of existence, like what all is around us and what exists and all'a that, and into another, and take a shortcut through that dimension that doesn't exist on the same plane or with the same rules we do, and get to what I want by only moving my hand.”

A pause, then.

“What the fuck.”

Roxy laughed at Karkat's bewildered face. “It's simple but you have to understand there's parts of this world, and not of this world, you can't get to. It's like that with all of our powers. There's some stuff we can't do, and the dimensions thing is confusing, but you don't have to know all of this perfectly. Fuck, a lot of Void is questionable because scholars can't test it without having Void powers themselves.”

“But there's another world?” Karkat had begun pulling at his hair as it was drying, causing it to curl and frizz.

“I mean I dunno about that. I know there are other planets, but that has to do with Space. What I reach does exist, but only a few people can access it. And I dunno even what it is. Some people think it's ever present, like it exists side-by-side with our world.” Roxy held both of their hands up, side by side, almost like they were about to clasp them together. Their empty martini glass was discarded on the floor. “And some think it's only connect to certain people, and moves with them,” they moved their hands so one was slightly above the other then around. It was clear the higher hand was following the other hand. Then they dropped both of their hands. “I doubt we'll ever know. I can't tell you. But just know you don't have to fully understand it, because no one does.”

Karkat gave Kanaya a hopeless glance then shook his head.

“I don't know what the fuck is wrong with you,” he said before ripping into his muffin vigorously.

“I also know little to nothing about Roxy's powers,” Kanaya added helpfully. Karkat muttered something around his muffin, then swallowed and tried again.

“I could give less of a shit about this,” he said, playing with the muffin wrapper as he spoke. “I'm tired, I can't hardly think, I think I ate before I came here but I can't even remember at this point. I'm tired.” Karkat held his hand demandingly and Dave hesitantly tossed him the last muffin. Karkat ripped into that one as well.

“This is a shitty dinner,” he muttered between gulps. After finishing the second muffin, he continued. “Where’s Terezi and Sollux?”

“Sollux is resting in the temporary infirmary, alongside the other troll that was hurt,” Kanaya said. “He was awake when Dirk and Jake laid him down, but they gave him some melatonin to help him sleep better.”

“And Rose was taking Terezi to her room for the night,” Roxy added.

“Rose was the blonde girl, right?” Karkat asked.

“The annoying one, yes. Surprisingly they seemed to get along though.”

Karkat went quiet for a second, and Dave couldn’t read him.

“I’m glad,” he said after a moment. “They need their rest. Terezi was really worried about Sollux.”

There was a second of silence. Roxy reached over and rubbed Karkat’s shoulder.

“I know this is all a shock, but it’ll be okay. This is day to day stuff for us.”

“You all live exhausting lives,” Karkat said. He stood and pulled away from Roxy’s hand. “I’m going to bed.”

“Sleep well. Breakfast is at ten—” Karkat slammed the door, cutting off Roxy, “—sharp.”

“He was pleasant before he became stressed,” Kanaya said, trying to pull a nicer atmosphere over the group.

“I really hope telling these trolls wasn’t a mistake,” Roxy said, their eyes locked on the door Karkat just left through. The remaining trio lapsed into an awkward silence. Dave tried to ignore the thought swirling in his head that said Roxy may just be right.

Kanaya broke the silence. “He was right though, it’s been an exhausting day. And Roxy?”

Roxy finally broke their staring contest with the door to glance over at Kanaya.

“I do not know Karkat very well, but something tells me we will not regret his or his friends visit tonight.”

Roxy took a second to respond. “I hope so.”

Then Kanaya left, and only the two siblings remained. The silence continued, and Dave found himself unable to keep still with the heavy, awkward feeling on his chest.

“I’m going too,” Dave finally broke and said, a little too loudly for the empty room the two were in. But Roxy barely looked at him.

“‘Night, Dave,” they said. Dave didn’t respond until he was nearly out of the room.

“Goodnight, Rox,” he said, then shut the door behind him gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry this took over six months to update. this chapter took me forever to write and i think i went through at least three different versions of this chapter before finally writing something i was content with and that followed the plans i have for this story. between that frustrating mess and classes at school, it was a rough six months. that said, it shouldn't take me nearly that long for the rest of the chapters. again, i'm so sorry for the wait and leaving everyone hanging. thank you for reading and don't be afraid to leave a comment if you want!
> 
> also note: i changed and removed the body horror tags, the zombies wound up not being as described as i thought they would be and i figured the zombie tag would cover it. if i have made an error here, please don't hesitate to tell me, and if you wish to remain anonymous then my tumblr (witchystump) is open and i always have anon on there. (idk if ao3 does anon so ????? just in case)


	3. Chapter 3

> Put my friends in the truck, add it up, add it up,
> 
> If you think you know me now, that's enough, that's enough,
> 
> If you think you know me now, that's enough, that's enough.
> 
> -[ _Hottie_](https://youtu.be/IVvW-cBxTTY), Brockhampton

 

The worst way to wake is being thrown out of bed and told your car is stolen.

“The what is huh?” Karkat said groggily from his new seat in the floor. Terezi loomed over him from the bed.

Then, when Karkat realized what she had said, he started panicking. “What do you mean the car is stolen?”

“I mean someone stole it,” Terezi said, slightly confused. “I don't know how you didn't get that.” 

“Yeah, it's not like it's a hard concept,” Sollux said from the doorway.

“Why are you two so calm? The car is fucking gone--” 

“Yeah, but it isn't even our car,” Terezi said. “It's not like we'll have to deal with the insurance or anything.” 

“It's fucking Equius's car! Y'know, the one person on this planet who can crush us with his little finger! And yes, we do have to deal with the insurance because it was in our property when it went missing!”

“You're overreacting again,” Sollux complained. Karkat turned to look at him and watched him roll his eyes before taking a seat on the futon.

"I'm not overreacting, this is really serious!” Karkat turned to look at Terezi, who looked more concerned with the scent of Dave's bedside table than the car. “Terezi, for fucks sake, quit smelling shit. We have a missing car. This is a huge deal!”

“The cops are already on it because of the rise in thefts last night,” Terezi responded while continuing her smelling. Karkat opened his mouth to argue, then stopped.

“What we've been trying to tell you is that a whole bunch of people had their shit wrecked last night, including car theft, and the cops are already on it,” Sollux clarified.

“I called Equius when I first realized it and he didn't care that much,” Terezi added. “He figured it was probably going to happen when the news about all of the attacks hit last night.” 

“So we won't be killed?”

Terezi shrugged. “That's always a possibility!”

Karkat groaned and collapsed back onto the blankets behind him and pulled the corner of one over his body. “Then why did you need to wake me up to tell me?”

“Because we were bored.”

“And Terezi got us banned from the kitchen.”

“How--actually, scratch that. I don't care. I don't! I'm going back to bed, and you assholes can fuck right off. Maybe you can go figure out how we're going to get home, since the car we used got stolen!” Karkat pulled himself back onto the bed, grabbing and pushing Terezi off the bed and onto the sheets then tugging them until she rolled off them. She shot Karkat a glare as he wrapped the blankets back around him and he threw himself onto the pillows.

“You're a rude morning person,” Terezi grumbled from the floor.

“Deal with it,” Karkat snapped from under the covers.

The two only gave Karkat a minute of peace before they started babbling again.

“So KK, I don't think you have a job anymore,” Sollux said. Karkat groaned in response, contemplated throwing a pillow at him.

“What the fuck is it now?” Karkat said, pulling himself up with a frown.

“The coffeehouse you worked at was one of the places attacked.” Sollux handed the phone to Karkat, who took it furiously.

“Holy shit,” Karkat murmured as he read over the list.

Sollux was on some local news website with an article about the night before pulled up. There was no casualty list, though the reasoning wasn't exactly encouraging: the list of missing people was cited at an exorbitantly high number and the chief of police had been quoted saying the wouldn't release anything until most of the people had been found. At the bottom of the article was another list, this one a number of places that had been attacked and any statements the owners had about their businesses. In the middle of the list was Karkat's employer, a local coffee shop and bakery called The Trident, with a simple message off to the side: _Closed due to damages. All staff and personnel need to contact the manager immediately._

“Shit,” Karkat said, a sense of doom growing in his stomach. “Can I borrow this for a minute?”

Sollux frowned, deeply unhappy, but nodded. Karkat crawled off the bed and left the room, closing the door behind him. He was already dialing the number of his manager, one of the few he knew by heart.

Ten minutes later, Karkat's manager hung up on him in the middle of his rant about workers rights, and he threw Sollux's phone roughly at the wall. Of course, the damned thing sprouted legs midflight and caught itself gently on the wall before crawling down.

Karkat was relieved he didn't have to deal with the thing being broken and Sollux's potential tantrum, but the lack of destruction was annoying to Karkat in his current state. So instead, he pressed his back against the wall, dropped his head into his hands, and let out a frustrated shriek that was partially muffled. When he finally finished yelling, he didn't bother moving, figuring that he was allowed a few moments of frustrated and more than a little sad quiet time.

 _Fuck._ He had really liked that job, too.

“You're in a mood again,” someone said from down the hall. Karkat raised his head and Dave stared back at him. He was covered in dust and sweat for some reason.

“What's your point?” Karkat knew it was a weak answer before it was even fully out of his mouth. “Why are you dirty?”

“Sometimes the outside must reflect the inside,” Dave said with a wide, shit-eating grin. Karkat wanted to be angry about that, but he found that he simply didn't have the energy. Then Dave threw his thumb over his shoulder, motioning towards the stairway. “I was trying to help Dirk with the clean up, but apparently I was only good at doin’ the dirty work.” Dave gave Karkat an overexaggerated wink.

“You're obnoxious and they probably didn't want to deal with you. Especially since everything that comes out of your mouth is a damn innuendo.”

“You're not wrong.” Dave shrugged before bending down to pick up Sollux's phone, which was scuttling around on the floor. “But seriously, what's up? You look out of sorts, and not in that grumpy way that you were last night.”

“Don't fucking mention that,” Karkat snapped quickly. Then, he sighed and confessed. “I got fired, okay? My job was one of the places those fucking--what did you call them, zombies?--attacked. The damages to the building were too bad for the owner to reopen anytime soon, so everyone was let go.”

“Shit,” Dave said, echoing Karkat's sentiment. “That's awful. Are they giving you any benefits or anything until you get a new job?”

“Nope.” Karkat sighed heavily. He felt his frustration and worry reach up his throat and threaten to strangle him. He quickly looked at the phone in Dave's hands, it's little legs wiggling in an attempt to escape, and fought back tears. When he felt it was safe, he continued. “I get my paycheck next Friday and no benefits, except they can sign for unemployment. Not that it matters, since unemployment doesn't pay enough for my part in rent. Fuck, or even groceries.”

Karkat was staring at the ground so he didn't Dave stepping closer until his shoes were in his sights. A hand gently touched Karkat's shoulder, rubbing small circles into the taunt muscles. In a normal day, Karkat would've found it invasive and insulting; now, the simple caress was comforting. He glanced up at the human and paused.

At first, Karkat thought it was the tears in his eyes playing a trick. But it wasn't his eyes, or a trick of the light. Dave's eyes were the same shade of human blood; bright and vivid red, with just enough of a rusty tone to not be immediately noticeable if someone wasn't close to him. It was the same shade that Karkat's eyes were starting to turn. Dave's eyes were beautiful, and full of concern.

“I don't know if this will help much,” Dave muttered, his quiet voice snapping Karkat out of his daze. “But Roxy and Dirk know some people. They can definitely get ya some sort of job, and it may not be exactly what you want but it'd be somethin’ to help pay the bills until you get the job you want.” Dave paused and his grip on Karkat's shoulder tightened slightly. “I'm sorry. If there's any way I can help, let me know.”

Karkat glanced back into Dave's eyes. They were close to each other; not pressed against each other, thankfully, but close enough that Karkat had to lean up to look into his eyes. He smiled weakly, feeling like the expression was more of a grimace than a smile. But he was grateful for Dave's help, though he had doubts of it's usefulness.

“Thank you,” he said. He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by an embarrassingly loud growl from his stomach.

Dave laughed and pulled his arm back. “That I can help with. Rose sent me to tell y'all that she had breakfast made and ready.”

“You couldn't have started with that?” Karkat was more than a little incredulous--sure, heart-to-hearts were nice, but it was god-knows-when in the morning. Dave snorted with laughter and took a step back.

“You looked like you needed to vent, especially before you dealt with Rose this early.”

“Rose isn't that bad--” Karkat started to say, but was cut off by the slam of a door.

He jumped and turned, only to find Sollux leaning out the doorway to Dave's room.

“You said breakfast was ready?” Sollux asked. Dave made a quiet noise of agreement, and Sollux fully emerged from the room, Terezi close on his heels.

“Finally, I was almost hungry enough to eat your art supplies!” Terezi said with a joyous cackle. As the two walked by, Sollux snatched his phone, still wiggling, from Dave's hands. The two watched them go.

“They're somethin’ else,” Dave said with a small smile on his face. Then he turned back to Karkat and clasped him on the shoulder. “Tell Rose I'll be one more minute and make sure they don't eat everythin’ before I get there.”

“What, you're not coming down to breakfast right now?” Karkat asked.

“Nah, not like this,” Dave said with a motion to his outfit. “Rose'll kill me for coming to any meal this dirty.”

“Oh.” Though he tried to fight it, he felt disappointed.

“Yeah. Like I said though, make sure there's some food left for me. I kinda wonder if your friends won't try to eat it all just to spite me.”

Karkat rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Shut the fuck up and go shower already. They won't eat your food and besides, if you keep smelling like that, I won't be able to eat.” 

Dave laughed, but nonetheless pulled himself away from the wall and walked around Karkat. He closed his bedroom door behind him with a resounding click, and Karkat caught himself staring after him. With a shake of his head, he turned away and followed after Terezi and Sollux.

The kitchen was so far beyond packed that Karkat worried he'd even fit into the room. Roxy, Sollux, and Dirk were the only ones out of the way, sitting at the table. Rose, Kanaya, and Jake were cooking and plating up the food, while Terezi tried her best to interfere. And--

There was a boy floating above the trio, dangling a jug of juice over Terezi. He had thick, short cut but messy black hair and square glasses that were a bit too big for his face for them to be fashionable.

“What the fuck is _that_?” Karkat said over the commotion, pointing up at the boy.

The boy frowned at him and, in his moment of inattention, Terezi snatched the jug from him.

“Aw, seriously!” the boy said as he floated downwards. “That's so rude! You let her get the apple juice.” The boy pouted as his feet hit the ground ever so gently. Even when he tried to look angry, there was a light, playful gleam in his eyes that Karkat had a hard time missing. “And besides, I'm not a _that_. My name is John.”

“Why the fuck were you floating though? What the fuck was that nonsense about?” Karkat snapped back.

“Nonsense? How is flying nonsense!”

“Alright, y'all just calm down now.” Dirk rose from his seat with a heavy sigh and stepped next to Karkat.

“John,” he continued, “this is Karkat. He’s Terezi and Sollux's friend. Karkat,” Dirk turned to look at Karkat. He was wearing a pair of ridiculous sunglasses, made from two long triangles, “this is John. He's an old family friend.” _So play nice_ , Dirk seemed to say wordlessly. Karkat opened his mouth to argue, but when Dirk's brows furrowed--the only part of his expression that could be reliably judged, since his eyes were covered with enormous pointed sunglasses-- Karkat stopped. He instead closed his mouth and turned away from John and seated himself next to Sollux.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Karkat asked Sollux in despair, dropping his head into the table roughly. Sollux shrugged and took a long sip from his soda.

“You need to calm down and be more open minded,” Sollux said when he was done.

“Easier said than done,” Karkat muttered, too quiet to be heard. Nonetheless, he lifted his head off the table.

Kanaya and Rose had begun to place various plates on the table. There was enough food for a feast, or at least so Karkat thought. Sausage, bacon, and turkey patties were on one giant, rainbow rimmed plate, while a matching giant bowl beside them was filled with scrambled eggs. Rose sat down another plate, this one covered in pancakes, before asking for Terezi to return the jug of juice to it's rightful spot on the table. After obliging, Terezi sat next to Karkat with a wide smile. 

“This place is wonderful!” she declared happily.

Even with his sour mood, Karkat was glad Terezi was enjoying her time. She immediately started up a conversation with Jake as he sat down, setting a jug of orange juice next to the apple before sitting. Kanaya brought over the final plate, a smaller plate of hard boiled eggs, though the eggs were a deep purple-brown and half the size of average eggs. Karkat perked up. 

“Are those what I think they are?” he asked, an uncharacteristically excited gleam in his eyes. Kanaya smiled warmly.

“Alternian eggs, from a common swampbeast,” Kanaya confirmed. “There's a small market nearby that sells our food, don't ask me how they get it however. It's a mystery, but a delightful one.”

“Thank you.” Karkat's gratitude was sincere. 

Rose returned with John by her side, both of them carrying the plates and silverware. They handed out the mismatched plates and sat down. There was an empty spot  for Dave next to John, across from Karkat. 

Sollux was the first to dig in, reaching over and using Karkat's head as an armrest to grab several of the Alternian eggs. Karkat all but threw the other off of him once he was sure the eggs wouldn't fall onto his head, and reached for some of the eggs himself.

Several minutes passed without any conversation, at least between the trolls. The humans at the table, however, had other ideas.

The humans were exactly like every shitty sitcom Karkat had ever watched (and secretly loved). They were all comfortable with each other, each of them flipping between the conversations and filling them with what had to be either piss-poor attempts at jokes or old inside jokes that Karkat didn't understand. There was something between the group that Karkat could see and feel but wasn't a part of, like a number of strings tying the group together. As interesting as it was to watch the family react, a part of Karkat felt a familiar sting of not belonging, of watching something wondrous from the outside.

He tried not to dwell on that feeling.

Thankfully, the eggs Kanaya had cooked provided a great distraction, as did watching Terezi's attempt to draw stick figures out of ketchup on her scrambled eggs. And when Dave sat down not soon after Terezi started naming her stick figures, Karkat found that staring at the way the sunlight glistened off Dave's wet hair was more than enough of a distraction.

“So, you asked about John's bein’ able to fly?” Dirk had leaned forward so he could be seen around Sollux. Karkat gave him his full attention and nodded.

“John's dad is a local celebrity ‘round these parts. He's helped train a shitton of students, including the four of us.” Dirk motioned to his brother and sisters with his fork. “His dad’s beyond good with magic. His kid John is good with magic too, specifically that of Breath. It’s free will and ability.”

“What the fuck does that mean? What’s free will got to do with flying?”

“Means he’s good with understanding people and their free wills. He can see what people instinctively want to do. It’s called Breath because it follows the whole ‘breath of fresh air’ metaphor. Freedom, free will, direction and action; John’s good at all of ‘em. He’s a natural leader and good with knowing what to do. As for flying, he works well with the element of air, hence the whole Breath name. He gets to fly, or float I guess is the technical term.”

“We’ll see about that,” Sollux leaned over and whispered to Karkat. He shoved Sollux away from him while Sollux laughed. Dirk gave the two an odd glance before shaking his head and going back to his meal.

“...so is it possible the Megido family was targeted, or was it more random than that?” Rose’s voice trickled across the table. She was speaking to John, who held a purple phone in his hand.

Sollux perked up at Rose’s words.

“I have no idea, though it is weird that they were a part of the attacks too. I’d say you need more research before making that claim, though it does seem to have some validity.” John handed the phone back to Rose and took a big bite of his toast. Rose frowned as she took it back and stared intensely at the small screen.

“I’m not sure how to get more information. I looked up everything I could about the Megido’s, but they’re very private. I can’t even get an updated family tree from my records on them.” Rose’s stare turned into a glare that should set the phone and table aflame.

“Why not just ask them?” Sollux asked. Rose looked so startled that her glare disappeared.

“You don’t just _ask_ the Megido’s questions,” she responded. Her voice had a certain finality to it that implied that whoever the family was, they were out of Rose’s league. “You can’t just go and talk to the Megido’s, that’s absolutely unheard of. They’re one of the oldest troll families on Earth and have immense powers, not just magical but also financial, political, everything you can think of. I can’t just _talk_ to them.” Rose’s eyes were the size of her plate, matching the incredulous look on her face.

“Sure ya can,” Sollux said around a giant bite of egg. He leaned back in his seat and swallowed, a suspicious smile growing on his face. “I talked to one all last night.”

“Spoke,” Terezi said automatically, not turning her focus away from her own meal.

“Whatever.”

“What the _fuck_ do you mean you _spoke_ to a _Megido_ last night?” Rose asked frantically, leaning so far forward in her seat that her shirt was in danger of touching her plate. Beside her, John reached over and pushed the plate away from her.

“Yeah, she’s a real nice gal. Originally from Georgia, I think she said. It was a good talk.” Sollux grinned widely and wound his long arm around the back of Karkat’s seat. He was relishing in Rose’s panic. “You remembered that one girl that got hurt? Well, she woke up last night and, conveniently enough, I was awake when she started asking questions.”

“We’re housing a Megido,” Rose whispered. She seemed to break under the realization.

“That means we have a reason to talk to them now,” Dirk said. He turned to Sollux. “How was she doing this morning? Do you know if anyone has checked on her?”

“Kanaya came in early on, but where she stayed up for a few hours after she woke up, she was tired and had crashed again. She was doing a lot better, but she had said something about her stitches hurting and joints aching,” Sollux said.

“Those would be normal responses,” Kanaya said before Dirk could ask her what it meant. “I will have to check on her and make sure everything is alright, but if all she is experiencing is sore muscles and painful stitches, then that should be expected and is quite routine.”

“When will she be able to go home?” Dirk asked.

Kanaya shook her head gently. “I will have to check to say when. However, being a rust blood, she might heal faster than we expect.”

“At least she gives us a link to contacting her family.” Dirk looked back to Sollux. “What did she say last night?”

“Regular stuff, for the most part. Where am I, what happened, this is the last thing I remember, that sorta stuff. She told me her name and then I explained what happened last night.”

“I will check on her once I’m done eating and can take a plate with me as well,” Kanaya said. “When she is able, I can have her contact her family for us and see if she is willing to answer some questions.”

“She should be. She’s really nice and friendly,” Sollux responded before digging back into his food. Karkat and Terezi both turned towards him.

“I’ve never heard you say someone was nice before,” Terezi said before taking a knowing bite of her biscuit. She wagged her brows once at Karkat then turned away in time for Sollux to glance up at her.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Sollux asked. Terezi shrugged and went back to her food quickly.

“It isn't important,” she said, finally cutting into one of the stick figures on her plate. Sollux stared at her for a moment before continuing.

“So you got us a ride, right?” he asked, and Terezi froze, her fork halfway to her mouth. Caught between the two, Karkat rolled his eyes.

It was a bitchy game the two played: the two always had to be the smartest one in the debate, which led to daily arguments and fights. Karkat considered it some fucked up form of blackrom romance, though the two lacked every other aspect of the hate-filled relationship. But it happened at least weekly, if not daily. They don't get along, one manages to “one-up” the other (whether that be actually proving they were more witty than the other or just confusing the other into silence), and the other had to go and bring up some unrelated, pointless bullshit until the two forgot what they were even arguing about originally. Sometimes the spats went on for days.

“Well,” Terezi said, setting her fork down and turning in Sollux's direction. “You see, here's the thing,” she paused, then said, loud enough to overwhelm the other conversations at the table, “we are going to need a ride home today.”

Everyone went silent.

“What now?” Jake asked, food still in his mouth.

“Our car was stolen and we need a ride back to our apartment,” Karkat clarified, jumping into the conversation before one of his friends had the chance to turn it into a passive aggressive fight.

"Dave has nothing to do today," Roxy said quickly, their mouth still full of food. They quickly swallowed before addressing Dirk. "Today we're gonna work on the wiring, right? All we need to do is figure out what needs repaired. I'm sure he could give them a ride."

There was an undertone to their voice that concerned Karkat. Dirk had seemed to catch on to it too, judging from the confused face he made at them.

"We could use an extra hand. Besides, Rose can't help anyways--"

"But we've got John for the day!" Roxy seemed ruthless and, strangely enough, desperate. "Besides, you can't send the trolls on a taxi. Karkat said they were xenophobic. I really don't want the deaths of three new friends on my mind and you don't either."

"I doubt they would _die_ \--"

"She has a good point." Rose had joined the fray. "Dave would end up distracting John and we would lose them both. Plus, Dave is the only one who can drive."

"I can drive," Roxy and Dirk said in unison.

"Yes, but you're," Rose pointed at Dirk with her fork, "the only one who knows what exactly will need to be replaced. And you," the fork shifted to point at Roxy, "are a terrifying driver, and as ironic as it would be for your own driving to be the cause of their deaths, it’s something I don't want us to encounter."

Dirk seemed to want to argue, but sighed. Rose sat her fork down smuggly.

"Alright, fine. After they eat, Dave can drive them."

* * *

 

The drive didn't take as long as expected. Surprisingly, traffic was light that afternoon and the old, beaten up green truck that Dave drove managed to get them to their destination without issue.

The troll's apartment was in Greenwich and was surrounded by other apartments. The block they were on had been desegregated for roughly a decade, but an abundance of trolls still lived in the area and most of the apartments were designed for the aliens.

It didn't take long for the group to get comfy in their apartment. Sollux instantly booted up the PS4 in their living room, while Terezi made herself at home in a chair close to the TV. As Sollux moved through the menu, Terezi sniffed loudly and started arguing with Sollux on his gaming choices.

Karkat was the only civil troll in the household, it seemed. 

"The bathroom is straight down the hall," he said to Dave. "Feel free to take any drink or food you want, but don't be an ass about it. Sollux will probably pick a multiplayer game but if he doesn't, be an ass to him. He's got a lot of those games and the loser never has guests." 

Dave gave an expressionless thumbs up before making himself comfortable in the living room. Karkat got started on making a drink he figured a human would like: cherry Kool Aid, the only drink they had in the apartment that wasn't an Alternian flavor or one of Sollux's disgusting energy drinks.

Once one clean pitcher, several cups of water, too much sugar, and a packet of Kool Aid were mixed together, Karkat put the concoction in the fridge and went to watch the trio play video games. Sollux had chosen some zombie game, something gory and nothing like last night but still stomach turning. Karkat declined a controller and watched the trio play, acting in the role of a referee but with fouler and more insulting language.

"That was pathetic, Sollux!" Karkat cried around their fifth round. "You had music cues and you still got locked out of the safe zone with a fucking special one! God, this is too much to watch!"

Karkat used Sollux's shitty gameplay as an excuse to abscond to the bathroom, though he was accompanied by Sollux's screamed profanity. He was cut off when Karkat closed the bathroom door.

As he returned, he found the situation must have changed. From the living room came sounds of destruction; they were good sounds apparently, since Sollux whooped loudly after one particularly loud explosion. Karkat laughed quietly at his friends and decided to check on the Kool Aid. He bent to pull the pitcher out of his fridge and, when he stood back up, found Dave leaning against the kitchen table.

"So," he said as Karkat sat the pitcher down next to him, "why is the blind girl that good at games? Because like, don't tell sollux, but she's kicking his ass."

"She practices a lot more," Karkat replied as he retrieved some cups, having to stretch up to his tiptoes to grab four. The last two were pushed back into the cupboard, just out of his reach. "She actually plays that game a lot and Sollux tends to not move from his room unless he has work."

Dave's hand snaked around Karkat's shoulder and grabbed the two cups with ease. Karkat dropped from his tiptoes and turned to give the boy a glare when he found himself chest to chest with him, so close he had to crane up to look at Dave.

"Rude ass," Karkat muttered and snatched the cups. Dave laughed.

"Do y'all not play video games a lot then? I'd figure the coder had the best skill, but Terezi's really handin' him his own ass."

"Terezi's the only one who plays lately." Karkat set up the glasses, then checked the pitcher before pouring. "Sollux focuses more on his computer shit, including games, and I was too busy with the end of high school BS to bother with killing zombies. Plus it's gross to try to play with Terezi's saliva all over the TV."

Dave slunk over to the table and picked up a cup. Karkat handed him the pitcher a bit too roughly.

"You jus' graduated, right? Didn’t we go to the same high school?"

Karkat nodded and took a long sip of Kool Aid. "Yep, and I hated every second of it."

Dave sat the pitcher down and picked up his own cup to take a sip. The red dye stained his lips, turning their pinkish beige color to a rose. Karkat glanced away.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Dave paused and waited for Karkat to respond. At his silence, Dave grimaced. "Okay it was horse shit and awful, but you don't even have one good memory from there?"

"No," Karkat said, scowling, from around his cup.

"Not even meeting me?" There was an undertone to Dave's voice that put Karkat on edge. He was joking, but not completely.

"We didn't meet in high school, dickshit. I don't even think we had any classes together."

Karkat didn't think; he _knew_. Dave Strider could have been on a whole other world in high school for all the similarities the two shared. Dave hadn't been popular in the technical terms, but the club his siblings owned made his name known across the school. Besides that, Karkat was only known to those who shared school-related clubs with him. While Dave did...whatever he did in high school, Karkat had studied religiously and never given himself a break long enough to talk to him.

"Well, yeah. But surely we met once?" Dave pulled down his shades with a hopeful look. Karkat shook his head.

"I didn't, and still don't, talk to people unless I have to. I specifically skipped all the senior day fuckery to avoid that."

"Oh." Dave was crestfallen. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and the two drank from their cups in unison, trying to diminish the awkward silence.

"I wasn't, like." Dave broke the silence but trailed off before he could say something coherent. He turned to look out the kitchen window. Karkat noticed he was frowning, and slightly biting his lip.

"I wasn't a dick to you?" Dave blurted out, rushed and sudden. "Like in high school? I was a royal pain in the ass back in junior year and I know I did some shitty shit but like, I never tried to be an asshat but sometimes it jus' came out and I wound up lookin' more villainous than a Disney character prior to the nineteen-nineties and--"

" _Dave,_ " Karkat loudly cut the boy off, reaching over to cover Dave's mouth with his hand. "We didn't meet in high school. The only reason I knew about you is from when one of my friends went to your siblings' club, and because I had one class with Rose, over two years ago."

Karkat couldn't see Dave's eyes very well through his shades, but his brows shot up. Dave blew a puff of air against Karkat’s palm suddenly, and Karkat dropped his hand, too quickly for his liking, trying not to focus on the heat in his cheeks.

"Sorry," Dave muttered, a strong twang to the word. "Got carried away again."

Dave ran a quick hand through his hair before continuing. "It sucks we didn't know each other before now, though. You're, uh," Dave turned his face away from Karkat slightly, and Karkat watched his skin turn until it was flushed red.

"You're pretty cool," he finished, somewhat lamely and with a quiet chuckle at the end. "I know that sounds weird as fuck, but when you aren't trying to actively rip my head off, you're kind of cool to be around and all." Dave looked down at Karkat with a lopsided smile.

Karkat was surprised he was smiling back.

"I was wondering," Dave continued, "if you wanted to come back to the cl--"

There was a gigantic _BOOM_ that echoed around the kitchen. The ground shook around the apartment, shoving Karkat into Dave. There was a roar of noise, the items around the apartment slamming into each other and crashing, as well as the shouts from Terezi, Sollux, and the trolls in the other apartments nearby. The pitcher slid into Karkat's side before tipping, drenching him in Kool Aid.

It was over as soon as it started; one boom and a ten second earthquake later, Dave and Karkat stared at each other with wide-eyed fear.

"Karkat?" Terezi yelled from the living room. That was what Dave needed to snap him out of his panic; he jerked into movement before Karkat and raced towards the living room. Karkat finally snapped out of his shock and followed close behind him.

The living room was intact, though the TV stand had cracked in the center from the shake. Terezi was tangled on the floor, wrapped in her controller's cord and half upside-down. Sollux was sitting on the couch, virtually untouched except for some dust, perfectly frozen. Dave made it to Terezi first and began untangling her. Karkat slowly approached Sollux.

Karkat reached the edge of the couch before Sollux moved. His bicolored eyes flickered up, above his glasses, towards Karkat. Karkat recognized the fear and worry there, and suddenly his still position made sense.

"I didn't do it," Sollux whispered as Karkat sat next to him. "I didn't lose control of my powers. It wasn't me, I swear."

Sollux was beyond scared shitless, already worried he was to blame. Karkat was filled with a rush of sadness and pity for his friend, and cooed quietly as he reached over. He pressed his hand against Sollux's cheek and cooed again.

"Is he okay?" Dave asked. Karkat stole a glance over at him, and saw he had disentangled Terezi from the cord. They stood by the still-intact coffee table, Terezi with her cane in her hand. Dave had his arm around Terezi protectively.

Before Karkat could respond, Sollux moaned, a low and frighteningly inhuman sound. To Dave, it sounded like something a too-dramatic actor in mourning would do on a soap opera. To the trolls, they heard the quiet waves in his voice and knew that for Sollux to cry out for help meant for him to be in awful danger. Terezi quickly joined the two on the couch.

Terezi pressed her palm against the other side of Sollux's face and began to whisper to him, telling him it wasn't his fault, he hadn't lost control, he was safe. As she whispered, Sollux reached out until he had a hand on both of the trolls knees. Then, he froze.

Sollux pulled his hand up and it was tinged red with the drink's dye. A bright, blood red. Although it was barely on Sollux's hand and wasn't the right consistency, Karkat instantly knew what the psionic thought it was.

Sollux cried out, a series of low chirps separated by air, and Karkat pulled away and stood.

"Shit," he muttered before turning back to his friend. "It's not blood. I just spilled some red dye on myself, I'm okay and fine and not hurt, okay? Don't worry, you didn't hurt me." Karkat pressed his forehead against his friend's and made a soft, gentle sound to signal his own lack of distress and try to comfort Sollux. It barely worked.

"Karkat," Terezi whispered. "Go get changed. I've got him."

Karkat didn't need another invitation. He shot up and raced to his room. There, he grabbed a pair of pants that had been discarded from the day before and a t-shirt. He almost ripped the shirt getting it on, then started to hop into his pants when he glanced up. He looked out his window and saw much further than he should have been able to. The former apartment building was gone. Karkat took the sight in then, without fully zipping up his pants, rushed back to the living room.

"You guys need to see this," he said, quoting his least favorite cliche while finally buttoning his pants. Terezi turned towards him as he rushed back to his room.

Karkat's apartment was at the far end of the hall, and his room was one of the only in their apartment that faced this particular direction. Normally it would look over the apartment building next door.

Dave was close behind, and almost slammed into Karkat. He looked forward and paused.

"What am I supposed to see?" he inquired as Terezi pulled Sollux into the room. Terezi stopped once she was in the doorway, her nose twitching already, and Sollux gasped.

"There was an apartment building there," Karkat replied, pointing forward.

Sollux lurched forward and grabbed the window sill. Then he gagged and quickly pulled away.

"Yep, not me, I couldn't do something like that even if I tried," he muttered, a hand over his mouth. "I'm not strong enough to do that."

Karkat, Terezi, and Dave moved forward all at once, and stared at the sight before them.

The apartment building next door had been much smaller than the usual. It was a whopping three stories tall and less than half the width of the average apartment building, and rested on the corner. It was made of brown bricks.

Those same brown bricks were lumped in a pile and spilled out into the street, the top of the pile only coming up to half a story below Karkat's window. Cars were crashed on the street below; one or two looked lost under the debris. There was a heavy layer of dust everywhere that blocked some of Karkat's view, but even through it he could see liquid beginning to seep out of the building. He hoped it was a broken waterline, but some of it was too abnormal and thick to reassure him.

"What the fuck?" Dave muttered, incredulous.

"What am I smelling?" Terezi whispered before pulling back. "Please tell me it's not as bad as it seems."

"It is," Karkat said. He took a few steps back himself. When the back of his knees hit his bed, he let himself go down without problem.

"They'll probably evacuate you all soon," Dave said. He glanced back at Karkat before joining him.

"Is this related?" Terezi asked, still by the window. "Last night's zombies, now an," Terezi took one long sniff, "explosion?"

"Couldn't tell ya," Dave responded with a shrug. "It's not like anything I've seen before though. Most of the time, magic feuds don't use explosives."

"Coincidence then?" Terezi sounded unsure.

"Possibility."

It wasn't any surprise when the emergency alarms went off. The trio, as well as every other apartment patron, were ushered outside and across the street by police officers. Many people and trolls left; Karkat, Sollux, Terezi, and Dave stuck around and watched the clean up and rescue begin.

Hours passed. There had been casualties in the fallen building, more than Karkat wanted to think about, but the source of the explosion wasn't entirely known yet. The buildings nearby were safe and empty of any bombs, though, so the police cleared everyone to return to their apartments. It had turned dark out.

Dave caught Karkat's sleeve as he began to head inside and pulled him off to the side.

"Since y'all don't need a place to stay again, I'm gonna head home," he said, letting go of Karkat's sleeve to fiddle with his own instead. "I can talk to Dirk and get him to keep an eye on all of this. It'll be a few days until the club reopens, but when it does…" Dave trailed off for a brief second. "You should come back sometime. I'd like to see you again."

Karkat nodded. "Let me know if you find anything out about any of this. And as for the club, I'll try to come visit again soon."

Dave smiled before taking a step back. "Cool. I hope I'll see you again soon, Karkat." He turned and started off towards his truck, soon getting lost in the crowd of trolls returning home.

Karkat went inside, fought his way through the throng and up the stairs, and found Terezi and Sollux inside the apartment. The TV had been moved from it's broken stand to the floor and was entirely unplugged. Sollux was still working on removing his game consoles from the shelves.

Both trolls turned to stare at Karkat when he entered the living room. Sollux had a small smirk on his face. Before an argument could start up, Karkat raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm too fucking tired to be interrogated. Ask me shit in the morning, after I sleep twelve hours," he said. Karkat turned on his heels and went to his room.

As he got changed, the new scenery caught his eye. The emptiness outside of his window struck a sad, sickening cord in Karkat, and he contemplated sleeping in the living room for a minute before giving in and curling up under his covers.

It would be hours before the troll fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "i'm going to update more!" well i'm lying bitch so sorry about that y'all
> 
> that said, i've had a hell of time with uni and this past semester (lpt: don't take a neuropsychology class. just don't. love yourself.) and now my home life is ruining things a bit. i haven't had wifi consistently since before may and i write this on google docs for ease of access, but that means i haven't had a huge chance to write without burning data. i should get wifi back soon but who knows! not i. i never know with this stuff. all of that said, i wrote up an extra intermission-style chapter to reward everyone who still reads this fiery trainwreck show. 
> 
> some actual notes now: homestuck updated! whoo! i have read maybe three pages so all of my knowledge is from what people are screaming about. that said, i read somewhere that roxy is nonbinary, so i will be promptly updating the whole fic to reflect that. i began writing this chapter before january and the updates, so there may be an error in pronouns somewhere that i have missed. i hope there isn't, but on the chance there is, i apologize profusely and would appreciate it if you could point it out because it has most likely just slipped through the cracks of editing.
> 
> also, for the song choice: i love brockhampton and truthfully, the tone of this song fits the vibe of this chapter more than the lyrics. the song lyric bit is supposed to come in more importantly later on, but nonetheless.
> 
> thank y'all and enjoy!!


	4. INTERMISSION

> Dear friend of mine has
> 
> Broken his union
> 
> Broken from tradition
> 
> Broken his vision of the future
> 
> Alone, alone, alone
> 
> Not alone at all.
> 
> -[No Kind Words](https://youtu.be/605fY2RqTkI), Maccabees 

_Around 1:30 p.m., a green truck parallel parked across and down the street from the target's apartment building. Three trolls and a human emerged; the human was the driver, a blonde man. The trolls were the blind teal blood and obnoxious yellow blood that live with the target. The final troll is the target._ The troll hesitated in his writing, his hand stilling on the ink pen.

He had been stalking one Karkat Vantas for months now.

The group crossed the street and went into their home. The stalker troll sighed then began writing.

_The human and truck is new. The group was gone a whole night and half of today. Perhaps a new trend; recently discovered they all graduated high school this month._

The troll sat the pen down, this time for good. It was, as he had begun to refer to it, the big day. He closed the notebook he was using to make notes on his target and placed the cheap composition notebook on a bookshelf, trading it for a better quality one. He opened it on his desk and sighed contentedly.

This notebook was only written in Alternian, the native tongue for most trolls. This troll in particular found it far easier to read Alternian than English, and this notebook was one of his favorites. It detailed the history he had poured over, even before coming to Earth, and was what today's existence was for.

It was an Alternian history novel on the ancient rebellion. The troll had spent multiple years pouring over the stories he had read. Though a disgusting stalker, the troll was one of the leading historians on the ancient and infamous rebellion in Alternia. He was only recognized on Earth; it was a forbidden topic on Alternia and besides, historians didn't exist there anyways. Not that he had recognition here either. No one cared about trolls.

But their rebellion was important nonetheless. The troll had found signs all over the two planets of its importance and was determined to see himself through to the end of the fruits of his labor.

Today was a special day. Today, someone else was going to find out about his work.

The troll glanced out the window of his study and into the window across from him. It had been an accident, living next to his stalker. He had always thought his next door neighbors were obnoxious children. That was, until the trolls had tried to rearrange their room.

His window stared into the window of one Karkat Vantas. A few years prior, the trolls began their march through puberty, and his neighbor had been particularly frustrated. He had something as small as trying to replace his framed artwork when a nail had caught his arm. Blood as bright and thick as rubies had run, and the unnamed troll had been so shocked he locked himself in his bathroom for hours.

But since then, he had a new purpose to life. He had been close to giving up his dreams. The signs of the rebellion's importance had faded back then, and the troll had felt particularly hopeless in his studies. The troll's blood had revived him though.

The rebellion was important and still needed. And it seemed to be reoccurring, the troll thought. The emergence of another red-blooded troll, which was a genetic failure and deformity amongst the Alternian race, signaled the coming of something great on the horizon. And the troll, who had fled to Earth not only for safety but to continue his studies, was determined to start it.

He clutched the notebook tightly to his chest and closed his eyes. He rehearsed the history: the red-blooded trolls birth, his fight against the Condense, the troll's death that sealed the Condense's power and the horrific blood feud the had worsened with centuries. He had to know it perfectly. He couldn't mess up this once chance.

Suddenly he was setting the book down, despite it's importance. Then he was standing up and walking over to his window.

Inside, the troll fought his movements. But it was for naught.

Outside his window, in the alley below him, was a tall troll. At first, he couldn't understand what he was seeing; panic had made him lightheaded and thinking wasn't as clear. But then he had caught it: a flash of purple on the troll's shirt.

A purple-blooded troll was royalty. And there was nothing royalty disliked more than disobedience and dishonor.

He had fled Alternia for this very reason. Blue-, purple-, and pink-blood trolls were savage and dedicated to their system. Any act against the ruler was forbidden and harshly punished, oftentimes with torture and death. Anything disagreeing was destroyed; Earth's medical professionals known as therapists would have all been slaughtered on Alternia for promoting weakness while doctors didn't even exist. The reign of the Condense was strong and all powerful. One did not disobey.

But he had, hadn't he? He had kept prying. He should have known better.

The troll in the alley smiled up at him. He held something up in his long, thin hand: a little black box with a startling button.

_It's time, brother,_ the voice inside his head spoke.

That was another part he had studied: Chucklevoodoos, the magic specific to purple-bloods. He was unsure of how it worked, but knew it was terrifying. Something to do with their religion, the god of clowns and death, and manipulation of the mind and emotions allowed the purple-bloods to complete fears unheard of. Mind control, body control, nightmares, and madness were merely normal for the purple-bloods abilities.

He tried to scream _NO_ back, but was in no control of even his tongue. The purple-blooded troll in the alley below him made him march to his kitchen. There, he was forced to open his fridge.

It had been cleaned out completely, the troll realized sickeningly. _He had been inside my home_ , he thought. The purple-blood made no note and forced him to bend, open the bottom crisper, and pull out the single box inside.

It was plain black, similar to a ring box but larger. Upon forced opening, it revealed a standard orange bottle, like what was handed out from the human's pharmacies. There was no label on it, and he couldn't tell the color.

Despite his lack of knowledge on the bottle, he managed it open it perfectly the first time. Hands trembling, he downed it in three large gulps. The taste was utterly repulsive.

Then, he was free. He dropped to the ground in relief and moaned, curling up into a fetal position. Behind him, the fridge door stood open, and cold air breezed on the troll's back.

_It is time, brother._ The voice was louder this time and he shuddered. A sharp pain shot through his stomach, and he moaned again.

_What did I do to deserve this?_ he thought. He was shocked and terrified when he got a response.

_You wanted to speak out, brother. You found information that wasn't yours and were going to share it. That is a crime, my brother._

The troll moaned again as a horrific pain wrenched through his whole lower body, burning like acid and tingling like knives instead of pens. His body convulsed.

_It was our history._

Another wave of pain hit. The troll shook hard on the floors. He knew he wouldn't last much longer. Whatever had been in that bottle wasn't human-made; it was an Alternian poison.

_Everyone deserves their history._

That thought took most of his concentration to think. The pain was starting to take over and it was all he could think about. It was all over his body, twitching his toes and even in his brain. As his blood pumped the poison around his body, he began to black out. Soon, he would faint. Then, he would die.

It wasn't long now.

_Was I right?_ The thoughts of his research--the assumptions in his research he had to make when he ran out of ideas, the idea of a reemerged savior, the defeat of the past savior leading to an invincible reign of Her Imperial Condense--flashed through his mind.

But the other troll was silent.

Pain engulfed the poor troll. His studies departed from his mind and he began to scream in distress. The pain stretched over him and pulled him, dragged him down under consciousness as the actual effects of the poison began. Lung collapse, heart stoppage, arteries blocked and unable to pump were just around the terrifying bend.

Quietly in his mind, the troll uttered one last curse.

_Goodnight, brother._

It was the last thing the troll ever heard.

But the last thing he saw was his own floor exploding around him as his apartment building collapsed.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first published fic and i have no idea what i'm doing. lemme know if i've messed anything up with formatting or if anything is incorrect! 
> 
> this is also vaguely based off The City of Bones/The Mortal Instruments series. The only real similarities are the club and maybe the general theme, so having read that series before won't ruin this one in any way whatsoever. anyways, i hope y'all enjoy because this is probably going to be a long ride.


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